Cardfight! Vanguard Fanfic: Company Of Terran
by max734734
Summary: Ever wondered what/how the units on Cray would get themselves involved in? Well here's story about that. Warning, rated D for drunken. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Cardfight! Vanguard in any way and this story is merely for Entertainment Purposes only.
1. Series Prologue

CARDFIGHT! VANGUARD: COMPANY OF TERRAN

PROLOUGE CHAPTER

THE PLANET CRAY

1207hrs Local Time…

Thick grey clouds shrouded the once azure blue sky of the Sanctuary, spreading vast quantities of despair over the fellow citizens who cower in fear of the 'invaders'…

This is the planet Cray, under the grip of the cybernetic force known as 'Link Joker'…

From out of nowhere they descended onto the planet's surface, to continue the work that had started awhile back, during the War of Liberation…

Swarms of their forerunners, known as 'Star-Vaders', swiftly laid waste to everyone and everything that stood to fight against their might…

The numerous clans of the planet Cray faced the invaders sudden assault bravely, taking down countless numbers of their forces before… 'It' began…

Several leaders of the clans that fought the invaders fell to a strange power…the power that gave life to these cyber-beings would also be used to turn the invasion around…

'Reverse', that power was known as, would immediately turn the tides against the brave defenders of the planet…

One by one the clan leaders fell to this Phenomenon, and awakened with a will to destroy their own comrades who dared to go against the 'invaders'…not knowing that they were also assisting in the extinction of the clans they represented…

With their forces scattered and strength nearly diminished, the clans of Cray decided to form a team of their strongest remaining forces, to launch a last ditch attack that could permanently defeat the invaders once and for all…

Days after the final force left to finish the job, the majority of Link Joker forces still reign over the kingdoms of fearful citizens and weakened bands of defenders struggling to hold the line…

Hope is a strange thing…Many hold on to it despite it being a mere delusion…But then again you'd be surprised at just how something this delusional would pay off…In ways you'd least expect…

This is a story of a small band of defenders who despite being outshone numerously by the powers of others, in the face of sheer despair and death would turn the invasion all the way around…and round…and round…

THE TAVERN…

1215hrs Local Time…

Weapons Dealer Govannon, had been cleaning a mug that had waited its turn for cleaning as 'he' returned to take his seat on the bar again. The dwarf sized gnome was one of the Sanctuary's finest weapon smiths. Regardless of the weapon, this little weapons expert could whip up and old rusty, broken sword back into its original shiny adversary slaying state or essentially turn it into some priceless collector's item. There were rumours flowing around that Govannon was one of the few crafters who had both witness and partake in the forging of the Sanctuary's legendary super-weapons. Till this day, he has neither denied nor confirmed his involvement in the project…

His days as a crafter had both instantaneously skyrocketed and come crashing down over the course of the invasion. At first, orders were piling in from Armies, Mercenaries and even overly-panicky civilians. Over the clock he and his crew forged countless armours and weapons during the early phase of the invasion. But then armies were in retreat, and so did the orders for war gear. He'd barely escaped the attack on his workshop and struggled to seek refuge from the invader's grasp. Soon enough, he found himself put in charge of running The Tavern. A bar that had once belonged to a former associate of his, who till this day, had left the title of 'Bartender' under his name.

Nowadays, anyone who could avoid the constant patrols of the invaders would sneak their way to The Tavern, located underground with the main building on the surface, as a means of meeting, chilling or just getting drunk. Rare was the day when there would be meetings of planned offensives that would get underway, rarer were the days when the band that launched their attacks would return to drink another day.

Before him, the black knight sat while fiddling his long overdue for a refill mug. 'Need a refill?' Govannon asked.

The knight returned a slight pushing five as a sign of no, which irritated the bartender. This customer of his had been running up a tab that could feed a working unit of willing defenders, but guns for hire these days had upped their fees to a ridiculous rate of 'ridiculous', such that it's practically legal extortion.

A light orange puppy, with its ears covered by armour and had a monocle for a right eye leaped onto the bar. It happily snuggled next to the black knight's arm, who in turn gave it a nice run on the head. Just then, the bell by the door ringed.

The door showed a blonde white armoured youth with an overly sized staff emerging from the outside into the Tavern. By name, he is not known. Many just refer him to as Mystical Hermit, or Hermit for short. A warrior by his own right of fighting, who embarked on a journey to learn the way of the sage from the giants who roamed the Sanctuary, he does not walk down the path of knighthood as many would.

'Those pesky things sure know how to make a fuss of getting us,' said Hermit as he made his way toward the bar, 'I had to knock down a house to drive attention away from me. Though someone isn't gonna be happy about that.'

'Why didn't you just blast those pests down to hell while you were at it? Did you really had to take down a whole house in the process?!' exclaimed Govannon.

'Oh why don't you go blasting at every single invader you see? I'm pretty sure we'd all love the follow up party that follows up with pie!' Hermit returned back.

'I'd like some peanut pie please…But that's not the point! What matters is that you didn't take some out!'

'Peanuts make you nuts so vanilla is better! And who are you to say what I should do or not shorty?!'

'Shut it wannabe hermit! Learning energy blasting from the giants and you can't even shoot one!'

'Wanna try one? Cause it's on the house!' Hermit prepared his staff to fire as Govannon drew his pistol…

Just as they were about to shoot one another, the loud thud of a mug caught both their attention. Primgal barked wildly at the duo as the black knight stared towards them. Govannon noticed the knight pointing towards the TV overhead, with the face of their number one enemy on screen. The little gnome quickly scattered toward the TV to increase its volume for the crowd to listen over the invader's announcement.

'Figured you'd still be here,' Hermit addressed the black knight, 'I've got something in mind if you're interested…'

'Shut it Hermit! We're trying to listen!' Govannon exclaimed. Hermit was just about to launch another energy ball towards the piped sized shorty, but the black knight raised his left hand as a sign for hold position. Hermit willingly backed off and stared into towards the screen.

On the screen, the face of the Commander of the Star-Vaders stared towards the viewers. Few have ever fought him to live, let alone survive his onslaught. But what they do know, he strangely goes by the name 'The Clown', which begs the question why the Pale Moon Circus haven't made attempts to spice up their performances by hiring him…

'All citizens of the Sanctuary, you are now under the rule of Link Joker. By our decree, all citizens and members of any of your pathetic armies are compulsory to willingly surrender without condition or face our might and wrath for defiling us…'

'Why that little…' the black knight whispered softly under his breath, clenching his mug tightly. Hermit and Govannon had managed to hear his first words in a long while, which was much of a surprise.

'It is futile to face us head-on, you WILL LOSE, FAIL, SUFFER A GLORIOUS DEFEAT under our feet.'

The screen turned to show the various leaders of the Clans who led the defence against Link Joker, now imbued with the power of 'Reverse', with the black rings floating around their figures…

A crimson red thunder dragon, Vowing Sabre Dragon 'Reverse'…

A black six-armed demon, Demon Marquis Amon 'Reverse'…

A red long haired midriff barring elf, Silver Thorn Dragon Queen Luquier 'Reverse'…

A gigantic skull-faced robot, Dark Dimensional Daiyusha 'Reverse'…

A ferocious looking leopard, School Punisher Leo-plad 'Reverse'…

A living pirate skeleton, Ice Prison Necromancer Cocytus 'Reverse'…

A white twin tailed midriff barring angel, Cleanup Celestial Ramiel 'Reverse'…

A full armoured mecha fighter, Deadliest Beast Deity Ethics Buster 'Reverse'…

'That's a lot of leaders…gulp…'said Hermit.

'And my prize possession, a member of the Sanctuary's so-called First army…'

The screen shifted towards a long haired blonde elf, in a pure white armoured dress, carrying a large shield and sharp rapier, with a jewel of pathetic grey…Broken Hearted Jewel Knight Ashley 'Reverse'…

'No freaking way…'gasped Hermit.

'Way alright, we'd always knew something like this would happen eventually.' Govannon replied. He noticed the black knight's grip on his mug tightening, so did Primgal's mild growl becoming slightly louder…

'Whatever happens, your attempts to fight us is futile, we have your leaders, so gladly bow to us…'

Hermit stared at the black knight, he could sense his fury and hatred accumulating…something was going to happen…

'Or face our power, and be locked…or be 'Reversed'…' the cyber dragon gave the screen a close up wicked smile that screamed 'we have won, you have lost so don't bother trying losers…'

'Go to hell you lousy CENSORED CENSORED!' The black knight exclaimed as he drew out his pistol and shot 'The Clown' on the screen.

Hermit and Govannon were completely caught off guard by his actions, the last thing you'd expect a fellow viewer in a Tavern to do is to shoot the TV in the face!

'WHAT WAS THAT FOR ECTOR?!' screamed Govannon, as he grabbed Ector by his armour collar and shook him wildly, 'YOU'D JUST FREAKING BLEW UP OUR ONLY SOURCE OF ENTERTAINMENT AROUND HERE YOU IDIOT!'

'In my defence…' replied Ector, he brushed his chin a bit before snapping his finger for his answer, 'I was drunk!'

'DRUNK MY FOOT! YOU'D BARELY DRANK A SINGLE DROP OF ALCOHOL SINCE YOU GOT HERE!'

'Whoa, hold up there.' Interrupted Hermit, 'you've been here for weeks and you'd barely finish a bottle?!'

'Well, let's just say water's my kind of booze.'

Hermit gave himself a facepalm over his buddy's response, while Govannon was still coming to grips with the fact that Ector had took out the TV, 'SO what you're gonna do about the TV?!'

'Put it on my tab Govannon, just like you'd always do.'

'What tab?! You've been paying for everything you ordered since you got here!'

'I did? I was wondering where'd all that funding had gone to.' Govannon facepalmed himself, He was amazed that his longest serving client hadn't notice that he'd been paying his bills, with his superbly outstandingly lack of attention to such things.

'Ok back to business, Hermit buddy.' said Ector, as he filled a bowl of puppy feed to pass to Primgal to munch for lunch. 'You said you've got something for me?'

'Right, but before that,' Hermit patted adorable little Primgal as it dug into the delicious bowl of snacks it savours. 'Are you sure about this? I mean are you alright to go through with this again?'

'I am man, how long have you known me?'

'Long enough to know you get your butt kicked all the time. But seriously though, after what had happened the last time…'

'I know,' Ector nodded, 'this is what she would've wanted, for us to continue the fight. And looking at what's happening, I'd say we don't have much of a choice now do we?'

'True, but as leader you can't back out once this starts…'

'Yup, which is why, do you hear that?' Ector moved his palm by his ear to pretend he could hear something…

Behind the bar, Govannon gave up on pursuing the TV compensation to continue cleaning mugs, and let out a fart. 'Whoops'

'The point is,' Ector cleared his throat while secretly cursing Govannon for ruining that gag, 'someone's payback is long overdue…'

He turned to face the TV screen, which had paused itself with 'The Clown's' wicked smile. Hermit nodded in agreement, 'So what's next?'

'We do what we got to do, with courage,' said Ector, who gave out a fist bump.

'And determination,' continued Hermit, as he returned the bump.

'Ruff, Ruff,' barked Primgal, who accidentally toppled its lunch bowl.

'Don't forget weapons!' said Govannon, 'And that TV you owe the Tavern ECTOR!'

'No sweat man, which is why I'm asking you to come along,' said Ector, as he drew his sword and placed it on the bar, 'I am your best client as of right now, and I'd like to have to have the best crew along for the job.'

Govannon leapt onto the bar to observe the first weapon he had seen in awhile, months of serving booze had almost blunted his finesse of weapon crafting.

'Your sword's fine, an excellent piece if I might add,' Govannon explained as Ector took his sword and sheath it back, 'But you still owe me a TV plus double pay when we're done!'

'Make it triple. Just make sure you don't fall behind in the process.'

END OF PROLOUGE CHAPTER.

NEXT: Chapter 1: And I would Fight 500 Miles and I would Fight 500 more…


	2. Chapter 1: And I would Fight 500 Miles

Hey there! To anyone of you readers seeing this here, do note that this series is still ongoing on Cardfight! Wikia, and will eventually sync together when releasing future Chapters. And do give your honest opinions, suggestions and/or insults about this story k? Anything goes people!

Oh and Cue the Intro! watch?v=ELdWOgoKcsM

CARDFIGHT! VANGUARD: COMPANY OF TERRAN

CHAPTER #1:And I would Fight 500 Miles and I would Fight 500 More...

THE PLANET CRAY...

1300 HRS LOCAL TIME...

Thick gray clouds shrouded the once azure blue sky of the Sanctuary, spreading vast quantities of despair over the fellow citizens who cower in fear of the 'invaders'…

This is the planet Cray, under the grip of the cybernetic force known as 'Link Joker'…

From out of nowhere they descended onto the planet's surface, to continue the work that had started awhile back, during the War of Liberation…

Swarms of their forerunners, known as 'Star-Vaders', swiftly laid waste to everyone and everything that stood to fight against their might…

The numerous clans of the planet Cray faced the invaders sudden assault bravely, taking down countless numbers of their forces before… 'It' began…

Several leaders of the clans that fought the invaders fell to a strange power…the power that gave life to these cyber-beings would also be used to turn the invasion around…

'Reverse', that power was known as, would immediately turn the tides against the brave defenders of the planet…

One by one the clan leaders fell to this Phenomenon, and awakened with a will to destroy their own comrades who dared to go against the 'invaders'…not knowing that they were also assisting in the extinction of the clans they represented…

With their forces scattered and strength nearly diminished, the clans of Cray decided to form a team of their strongest remaining forces, to launch a last ditch attack that could permanently defeat the invaders once and for all…

Days after the final force left to finish the job, the majority of Link Joker forces still reign over the kingdoms of fearful citizens and weakened bands of defenders struggling to hold the line…

Hope is a strange thing…Many hold on to it despite it being a mere delusion…But then again you'd be surprised at just how something this delusional would pay off…In ways you'd least expect…

This is a story of a small band of defenders who despite being outshone numerously by the powers of others, in the face of sheer despair and death would turn the invasion all the way around…and round…and round…

SOMEWHERE IN THE UNITED SANCTUARY WILDNERSS...

1400 HRS LOCAL TIME...

'Jeez, could they quit cheating with their damn lasers already?!'

The exclamation was made by the black knight known as Ector, who was crouched behind the giant natural rocks that resided on the Sanctuary's plains. His armor was completely black, but what differentiate him from the Shadow Paladin's leader Blaster Dark was his unique mask with a sharp edged vizer that could simulate his spirit to fight in metallic terms. Just a day earlier he had agreed to finally launch a large scale attempt to drive back the invaders from the Sanctuary, something his buddy Hermit had proposed. The decision was intended to stay undecided, but circumstances and provocation had reignited the will to take the fight to the invaders.

Crouched behind a similar sized rock was Hermit. His name is not known, but many call him Mystical Hermit, or hermit for short. Rather than follow the majority of his friends in pursuing the path of knighthood, he chose to study under the massive giants that roam the Sanctuary, and thus created his own style of fighting. His weapon, a staff about the same height as himself could send out energy blasts that would make buildings crumble under pressure, not that the air wasn't doing that already.

The invaders had encountered the duo on their patrol route, and were taking measures to obliterate any their enemies, with lock powered laser beams. Star-Vader Actiniums (The 6k power Star-Vader from TD-11) continuously pounded their location while advancing forward to either blast the enemies to death or terminate them, either way something's gonna give. Their humanoid like bodies with a mask that was almost similar to Ector's as they repeatedly let loose their laser beams, much to Ector's annoyance of both the lasers and the mask!

'Any minute now man!' Hermit shouted over.

'Don't worry bout it! He knows what to do!' Ector shouted back, as an Actinium leaped forward in front of the black knight with it's scarlet red sword drawn. Ector swiftly let out a quick downward slash with his sword from his back holster, downing the cyberoid onto the ground, with a massive slash on its body. 'That's a horrible headwear buddy...'

Before he could finish, the laser beams had suddenly halted. The plan was in motion...

The Actiniums had both stopped firing their weapons and advance onto the duo's position, they were too busy trying to identify the strange yellow fluid their legs were drenched in. 'Now!'

The command was loud and clear, as Hermit emerged from his rock to let out a huge energy blast that he'd been charging while behind the rock, 'Take this, Charge Blast!' Hermit exclaimed the name of his attack, not exactly an A+ creative name but good enough to take out more than half of the drenched Actiniums with the majority weakened.

'My turn,' Ector exclaimed while vaulting over the rock and drawing his sword, running towards the group, he threw his sword like launching a boomerang towards the patrol. As the sword pierced through the body of an Actinium, Ector soon forcibly puled it out and delivered a forward slash onto the remaining 3 Actis, each one with their bodies falling in half onto the ground.

'Well that ended well,' said Ector while surveying the surroundings for any unseen threat. Alertness was something he'd excel at in the field of combat, but outside, he'd barely know what's a device with a pad in its name. 'Here Primgal buddy!' Ector whistled out.

Soon enough, a light orange puppy with its ears covered by armor and had a monocle for a right eye came out from behind a small rock. 'Ruff! Ruff!' barked Primgal as it trotted its way towards its caretaker.

Ector kneeled and gave the puppy a little cracker, with a pat on the head to go along with it, 'Good boy, buddy. I told you that'll work Hermit!'

Hermit derped himself over the fact that the yellow stuff that puppies make could turn out to me so useful, 'Yeah yeah great, we're using pee to take out robots now eh?'

'Actually it was more like a BASS instead.'

'What BASS? We didn't use half an instrument!'

'Um, it stands for blast and sword?'

'You're missing a S!' raged Hermit towards his near horrible at coming up acronyms leader.

'Well then Blast and Super Sword then! That kind of means what we just did!'

Hermit had to facepalm himself, questioning why the heck was Ector the leader again. 'Hey man, relax a bit. Save up that rage for more blast shots k?'

Now I remember, thought Hermit. He was hand-picked by their mentor herself, saying that potential within needs to be unleashed like the Sealed Dragons of the Empire, like literally. Hermit was slightly happy that his once depressed buddy was now a full fledged confident leader to lead this team.

'Why not,' Hermit replied, 'Gotta give what you can't hold in eh?'

'So we're trying poop next?'

'Like you said, that could work.'

The duo exchanged laughs as primgal gave an squeaky adorable bark, 'Ruff! Ruff!', which signaled the time to head out.

'Alright, they'd ought to done right about now, time to head out.' Ector stated as he sheathed his sword back into his back holster.

'Right' returned Hermit, as the duo plus puppy dashed towards the path they were held up at.

SOMEWHERE NEAR MAIN INTERMENT COMMAND...

1420 HRS LOCAL TIME...

Lamorak, the Knight of Determination shrugged and leaned by a rock in impatience over the late arrival of the leader's group. The male elf had really long brownish blonde hair, wearing a helm that bore a really long horn, with an armor set that had sharp pointy horns from arm to boots. His weapon, a massive cleaver laid idly by his side as tired of waiting as he is. According to some, he somewhat similar to a particular individual from out of this world...

His unit had been informed about the launching of the operation, much to his surprise. He and Ector were complete rivals when it came to fighting, but never once had he lost to him. After Ector's election to team captain, he had approached Lamorak to request his interest in joining, he'd answered he'd think about it, and made his decision the moment Ector began this mission.

Other members of his squad consisted of both knights and several beasts, the Covenant Knight Randolf had tagged along for the ride, as part of losing a bet about picking up fellow female knights back in the day. He's still strapped in the classic silver armor set in the field, along with his good old weapon, dubbed 'The Covenant Sword'.

The High Dog Breeder Akane was also part of the group, in her casual everyday wear of long jeans, black beret, and mild midriff barring shirt and tie. The red ponytail was the perfect sign for fellow high beasts to seek or follow should they ever find themselves lost or confused.

An adorable blue owl by the name of Miru Biru laid idly along side another owl, with a tracking system for its eyes, called Alabaster Owl. The two birds sat idly on Akane's shoulders, who doesn't feel the weight of the birds, thanks to relentless training with her whip that had strengthened her upper arm strength along with hitting accuracy.

In the distance, Lamorak could hear the slight tapping of footsteps approaching. Soon enough, a female pink haired elf in a formal blue uniform and blue beret approached him. 'They're coming! I see them heading here right now!'

'Who'd you see Lizzie?' Randolf asked the young girl who was panting for breath, running had always took a lot out of Lamorak's little sister Liz (Soul Guiding Elf, oh sure shoot me all because she doesn't have a name!), but everyone calls here Lizzie, cause Liz was a wee bit too short.

'Ector and Hermit are headed here now! We'd best get ready!' Liz answered back.

'About time,' said Lamorak, as he straightened up to mobilize, 'Good job sis.'

Liz nodded back with a smile, 'Thanks brother.'

'Well, I guess it's almost time isn't it?' said Akane, as she stretched her weary bones from slack.

'To think it took so long just to get here,' replied Lamorak, 'This had better happen.'

Earlier Lamorak's group were instructed to hit the Interment camps from the other side of where Ector and Hermit will be attacking from. By attacking dual fronts, the reinforcements would be force to split from the main Interment Camp in order to curb the security threats, making it easier to take down the base with ease.

9 camps had already been struck and their captives freed from the invaders, but only 5 were the work of Ector and Lamorak's teams. 2 more teams were mobilizing towards their meeting point, before a 2 front assault on the main camp of operations would get underway. Lamorak had a worry that if Ector couldn't make it in time to lead the charge, the plan would have fallen into tatters.

Soon enough, Ector and Hermit with the little puppy Primgal soon came into Lamorak's sight, much to his delight. 'Bout time you guys showed up!' Lamorak exclaimed.

'Sorry for the delay, Ector here wanted to test a little something.' Hermit replied.

'Yeah, really good stuff if I might add,' said Ector who gasped for breath, as his stamina was just as bad as Liz's.

'What kind of stuff?' asked Akane out of curiosity, while taming little Primgal who's tail kept on wagging.

'See for yourself,' Ector replied while tossing a bottle of yellow fluid towards Akane, 'Real good stuff we've got there.'

'Is this...'

'It works like a charm, literally.' Hermit explained.

'Mother of god...'

'Who's that?' asked Randolf, who came by to see what laid inside the bottle.

'Not your mom that's for sure Randolf.' exclaimed Liz.

'What has my mom got to to with this you little...'

'Enough already you two,' exclaimed Lamorak, who approached the group, 'You can duel one another later, but right now...'

'Time to finish the job,' continued Ector, 'With Courage,' Ector let out a fist to bump.

'And determination.' said Lamorak, who connected the fist bump.

Ector turned to look at the members of Lamorak's team, brimming morale to take down the enemy ahead. 'Quite a team you've got here buddy.'

'A pity Elaine couldn't make it, she had to watch after the wounded captives, but Gordon stayed back to give her a hand so they'll be fine.' replied Lamorak.

'Nggh,' grunted Ector, 'Well medic or not we've got to take em down. We can talk later, but right now let's hit it!'

With those words, all 6 warriors, 2 birds and a puppy raced towards the Main Interment Camp that laid down the path they traverse.

'By the way,' asked Ector, 'Any word about Govannon?'

'Him? After he dropped by to tell us about the plan, he headed out to notify the other groups.' replied Lamorak, 'And from what I heard, you shot the TV?!'

'Did I forgot to mention I was drunk at the time?'

'YOU NEVER DRINK! NOT EVEN DURING THOSE TIMES WHEN SENSEI TOOK US TO THE BAR!'

'I'm guessing everyone else is gonna get pissed with me over this TV thing eh?'

Looking around, everyone gave a nod of 'we'll pray for you though'.

MAIN INTERMENT COMMAND...

1430 HRS LOCAL TIME...

'Seriously though, can they please stop with those freaking lasers!'

Unsurprisingly, Ector was again complaining about the annoying laser beams emerging from the defenders of the Interment Command. This time though, Actis were joined by Lady Gunners and Fermiums with even bigger laser beams blasting at the group's position. Surprisingly, there was enough natural cover everyone, with Ector and Lamorak behind one giant rock, Hermit and Randolf behind a rock right next to Ector's team with Akane and Liz slightly behind them.

'You know, it's strange actually.' said Randolf.

'What is?' asked Ector.

'Their weapons are waaayyyy more advance than ours so why can't they just blow us up already?'

'Are you seriously begging for a death wish?!'

'It's sort of logical ain't it?'

'Good point actually,' said Hermit, 'They could've killed us all already, but yet they prefer taking prisoners and killing us slowly instead.'

'Your point?' asked Ector.

'Something's up. There could be something to this invasion that we're missing...'

'Well figure that out later, it's showtime!' Lamorak exclaimed.

Up above, Alabaster Owl and Miru Biru had managed to fly high enough to start the attack. Both birds gripped the bottle Ector had passed to Akane earlier, and were doing what most call an 'unconventional' approach. Their claws released the bottle to its long drop from the somewhat unsuspecting sky onto the unsuspecting cyberoids.

As the bottle shattered on the ground, it splattered the yellow fluid all over the attacking cyberoids. The majority had ceased firing and were struggling to figure out the yellow fluid all over their white metallic armor.

'The poop has popped! Time to hit it!' Ector announces, as all 6 humans/elves emerged from cover to start taking the base's frontal defenders.

Just like earlier before, the cyberoids were disabled by the yellow fluid, unable to respond to this strange liquid. Randolf decided to draw first blood for the team by charging ahead, 'Collapse death upon them, Covenant Crusher!' A bright radiant yellow flash struck the disabled cyberoids, with a large explosion engulfing the target point. 'Meh, these guys aren't so hard.'

A lady gunner drew her pistols to shoot Randolf at point blank range while he was contemplating on the invader's fragile troops, as a whip smacked onto her head. 'Watch yourself Randolf! Don't get cocky now!'

Akane was kind enough to rush to back Randolf up, normally she'd stuck by a gang of high beasts, and bind the target for the beasts to finish up. Rare was the day she would fight without the aid of the beasts that deem her their default master.

'Care to keep up with me Randolf?' asked Akane.

'Just do your thing red head!' replied Randolf, who was high with the thrill of combat.

Akane suddenly grabbed by his shoulders to turn him around, her fiery rage imminent of nuking Randolf in the face. Randolf was completely caught off guard by it and was panicking to escape Akane's scarlet fury...of owls. Randolf was about to feel the might of getting owled to death as Alabaster and Miru Biru descended onto the Covenant Knight who dug his own grave...

An energy blast struck the small band of Actis charging towards Randolf and Akane, Hermit advanced towards them to cover their backs as more Actis started advancing towards them. 'Could you two just quit it! Akane it's just an insult, you can get him to beer you later, and Randolf! Quit forgetting names already and start remembering them!'

'I'm a pa-argh!-nic-d'oh!-king argh!' said Randolf with Alabaster and Miru Biru continuosly pecking him in the face, but luckily missing the eyes.

Luckily, Akane had let Randolf off just as Hermit finished his order, and cracked her whip loudly to resume the attack on the true enemies. 'Okay Hermit, hear that Randolf? You owe me one!' exclaimed Akane as she whipped a Fermium that soon found itself in the peckings of Alabaster and Miru Biru.

'Now then, you were attacking?' Asked Hermit towards the face full of pecks Randolf.

'Right on,' replied Randolf, while trying to asses the damage done to his face, 'Remind me to start listing the names of every dame in our unit.'

'That is if you survive another pecking, if it does happen.'

Meanwhile at the other end of the battlefield Ector, Lamorak and Liz had managed to pass by the front Star-Vaders to approach the tunnel connecting the front defense force with the inner base, 'There it is, that tunnel's the only enterance towards the main base,let's...'

Before Lamorak could finish, a cyberoid landed onto the ground just a few feet away from Lamorak, armed with armor simillar to Actis, it carried hollow twin blades, and was knows as the Binary Star.

'You've got to be kidding me,' said Ector, 'Their little mockery of the leaders is still standing?!'

'You know this thing?' asked Liz.

'Yeah, we fought this little sucker before back during the early parts of the Invasion, these things aren't easy little Actis that's for sure.'

Just as Ector finished, swarms of White Night Fenrirs surrounded the trio, along with Meteor Ligers following close behind. 'Perfect, more than 3 against 3, that's real fair alright!'

'I'll deal with Binary Star, you just keep those pests off my back!' exclaimed Lamorak as he charged towards the twin bladed menace.

'Just don't get screwed over too quickly buddy!' Ector shouted back in response, while the Fenrirs and Meteor Ligers began pouncing at the black knight and blue uniformed pink haired apprentice, 'Nothing like the training dummies back eh?'

'I'm not that weak you know,' replied Liz in response, 'I could beat you the same way brother does back then!'

A triplet of fenrirs pounced onto the duo, Ector swiftly let loose a frontal slash to sever the heads of the silver colored cyber beasts, as they landed lifelessly onto the ground, 'Well here's the thing, I'm not that easy to beat anymore.'

Instead of waiting for an attack, Liz just sprang towards the gathering fenrirs and started slashing their metallic bodies fatal points, leaving half a dozen down before Ector had realized what had happened, 'Your version of easy might be outdated already senpai!'

'Senpai?! When? What? Why?'

'Really now? You don't like being called that?'

'Aw quit it kid!'

'How about a bet then? The loser gets to do what the winner says!'

'...For Lamorak's sister, you guys are nothing alike...but you're on!'

With that, the surrounding cyber beasts who were supposed to hunt now became the hunted, with the 2 swords of 2 fellow knights all vying for supremacy in terms of combat abilities, with the added bonus of making the other doing what they want...this is why gambling is bad people, stay away from it. Unless you're attempting to double trigger, then go ahead.

As the other two began their slaughtering of the cyber beasts, Lamorak found BS to be a bit more of a challenge than he'd thought. 'For a so-called fusion of the heroes, you sure are one hard nut to crack...'

Binary Star merely stood silently, its processor working on the solution to defeat the adversary before its sight. 'Not talking eh? Good, I hate noisy fights!' Lamorak charged towards the cyberoid and with his giant cleaver, 'Break them down to the ground! Demolition Slash!' He swiftly raised his cleaver, and thrusted the weapon onto the face of the cyberoid., an explosive blast followed the impact. Binary was still standing however, but Lamorak wasn't finished.

A front slash...

A swift downward impact...

And a slightly slower but more focused downward finisher...

Binary Star, as powerful as it is, had its armor shattered into tattered pieces of metallic remains. 'Not as good as you used to be eh?'smirked Lamorak over the cyberoid's remains.

He turned back to see that Ector and Liz had just about finish up on moping up the cyber beast horde, which left behind a sea of brilliantly silver metallic remains. Both knights held their kneecaps in exhaustion, trying to gather back whatever energy they could before the final assault. Even before we hit the main base they're already almost out, guess you need more training sis. Lamorak thought to himself.

Walking towards her brother, with her current standing opponent following alongside, Liz could feel that something was coming. Her sword, the 'Soul Slayer Sabre,' is capable of sensing the spiritual power of any being's inner powers. Other than that, it's still a rock solid combat weapon for an apprentice to wield as a personal weapon.

'Something is coming...' said Liz, with her eyes set towards the sky.

Ector and Lamorak both looked up, with a giant black shadow descending onto their position. They immediately scattered away from the enlarging shadow, as the new threat lands itself on the surface of the earth...

'Please tell me that you're freaking kidding me...' said Ector, gripping his sword tightly, while before him stood a gigantic white armored dragon...one capable of using the wicked powers of the cursed invaders...'Lock'...

TO BE CONCLUDED...

Apologies to those who read my fanfic a couple of weeks back for the really late follow up, but screw the excuses. Okay if you really wanna know, it involves college, there I've said it. Also, trying to get Project X Zone to work for PC... (I want that CH 29!)

Anyway just like before, feel free to tell me what you think in the comments below, be them insults regarding my way of writing and/or suggestions to improve upon them. It's perfectly fine, I could sure use some form of improvement in anything. Could you also mention if it's too long so that I can tweak a little bit here and there for future chapters.

Oh and does anyone know why they call it 'writing' on the PC when no writing tool is involved in it?

Cheers * And have a nice weekend! (ALREADY AT FREAKING COLLEGE!WHOO!)

Max734734

CONTINUATION FROM CHAPTER 1...

This one's a wee bit long if I might add...

Mobius Breath Dragon's landing had slightly shook the earth as its body landed, armored with an exoskeleton of white armor with red glowing stripes in between that infests the dragon's cybernetic body. A formidable foe to run into against the invaders, as its powers would be able to unleash upon the cursed blight that threatens every single citizen of Cray that dares its engagement. And it so happens at this point in time,this particular Mobius had encountered its primary target, the commander of any force that goes against them...The masked black knight before it's lifeless eyes...

Below the cyber dragon's gaze, just a few feet away from it, Ector, Lamorak and Liz stood nervously to take on the new threat before their eyes. 'So Mobius decides to mobilize already...wonderful...as it those horrible masks on the Actis weren't bad enough?!'

'You still can't seem to get over that can you?' Lamorak turned to ask, while gripping his cleaver tightly between his hands.

'If they're gonna invade, at least make em look good before they go down!' exclaimed Ector. As the only knight within the ranks who wears a mask, he sought to defend any form of insult that involves his personal symbol of himself.

Mobius unleashed a screeching roar towards the trio before it, the sound's intensity slightly pushing them back. 'Guess he wants a piece of us eh?'

The metallic armored dragon began charging a beam of black energy from its mouth, it was preparing what was the common finishing beam that had ended its many battles against the defenders of the planet. Bit by bit, the energy beam grew and eventually became a huge orb of the cursed power that the dragon relishes in.

'Aw crap...Get back! NOW!' exclaimed Ector, the knights that had once stood firmly against the white cyber dragon were now scattering away like rats from their position. Before they knew it, an ear piercing energy blast had been released towards them. The black blast swiftly bolted across the fields towards the fleeing trio, with Ector looking back at the incoming projectile... 'This is bad...'

The blast had struck its target trajectory, only to miss it by quite few feet. The blast had managed to catch Lamorak and Liz in it, but missing Ector who was following close behind. 'Shoot...'

Surprisingly, the two siblings were alright, they had managed to escape the blast's direct impact, which would've sealed both of them into the prison the invaders proudly flaunt, the prison known as 'Lock'. Despite escaping the attempt, the blast was still able to slightly disable them, in terms of physical capabilities. Now their bodies were completely vanquished of energy, with barely enough to keep them going, let alone stay in battle ready condition as they laid on the ground near the blast's crater. Ector swiftly approached the duo to asses their well being, 'Guys! Can you get up?' asked Ector as he tried to get Lamorak back onto his feet.

'I'm still kicking man,' replied Lamorak, as his concern was only towards his sister that laid beside him, 'Check on Liz, she's more important...'

Ector followed up on his buddy's request, and turned to check up on Liz's immobile figure. Half of her face laid on the brown solid earth, with her beret sitting idly near her position. 'Hey, kid, are you alright?' asked Ector, as the dragon behind was preparing to fire another shot towards the downed team.

Another black blast shot off Mobius's mouth, but a projectile from the opposite direction flew towards the oncoming beam. Both energy shots clashed with one another, with the newly fired blast breaking past the black blast and flew towards Mobius. The dragon swiftly took to the skies as the energy shot neared its target.

'If you're gonna shoot, at least make it stronger than that!' exclaimed Hermit, as he alongside Akane, Miru Biru, Alabaster Owl and 'the face still full of pecks' Randolf arrived onto Ector's current position. 'Aw, is Mobius running out Lock Shot's already? That one wasn't even worth that much power.'

'Either you're right or you've gotten stronger...' said Ector, who snapped his fingers in return, 'Man how long was I out at The Tavern?'

'Weeks man, you'd didn't expect me to be slacking off like before, did you?'

Ector had no counter or smart remark to shoot back at Hermit's little fact, and decided to switch the conversation back, 'Anyway, let's regroup with the others first.' said Ector while looking up at the hovering cyber dragon, 'We're in no condition to take it on when we've got one member down.' said Ector as he and Hermit bot got together to lift Lamorak off the ground.

Akane carried Liz from the ground and placed her unconscious body onto Randolf's shoulder, leaving him a smirk and weight to carry along. 'Well guess no more beer for you now eh?!'

'Just make sure you don't drop her on the way, cause I won't wanna be the person to piss a certain someone off.' replied Akane, as a death staring Lamorak turned to give the burdened Randolf the glare of 'I'ma gonna kill you should anything happen to Liz!' Randolf could only gulp in complete fear of getting mauled to death from the blonde cleaver swinging Elf, who's precious little sister was in his hands, or on his shoulders to be exact.

Mobius was watching in perfect view from above, and it's cybernetic mind was preparing to execute another attack on this group of intruders. Preparing itself, it soon thrusted towards the disabled group, with a beam of Lock Shot preparing to be unleashed upon them from above.

The cyber dragon was closing in fast, as Ector's team had barely left the crater towards the tunnel that connected the Interment Base from the outside. 'So much for this little plan...' uttered Ector as his team still continued their march towards the tunnel. Sticking close, regardless of what was going to happen, they will never leave one behind, not even in the face of utter defeat, especially in the hands of these cursed invaders.

The earth was suddenly rumbling with intensity, an obvious sign of an earthquake or something about to join the battle from below...

'Oh what now?' exclaimed Akane, as Alabaster and Miru Biru hovered over her. 'Oooh! Oooh!' exclaimed the two birds in panic.

'Guess they're gonna be throwing us a burial party,' said Hermit, as he gripped his staff, charging an energy shot to blast off the incoming threats, 'Well at least we'd go down fighting before they get us eh?'

Lamorak had finally managed to stand on his own again, as he brushed aside Ector and Hermit's support. Drawing his Cleaver, he stood ready to take on the oncoming dragon, along with whatever that was coming up next, literally. The trio in front, were bracing themselves as Akane, Randolf and the two birds stood slightly behind, preparing to make a run for it as soon as Mobius was swiftly approaching.

The rumbling earth had suddenly exploded open, with a humanoid sized insect holding two machineguns came into sight, screaming, 'Alright you lazy maggots! Get your webs and start ensnaring that thing!'

Before the trio's faces, the humanoid beetle by the name of Bloody Hercules had opened fire at the oncoming Mobius Breath Dragon, with the bullets bouncing off its super durable armor, but the shots had manage to disorientate the charging beam that was being prepared for firing.

Without warning, several yellow suited four armed insects carrying orange packs with some kind of hose attached to it emerged from the cracked earth, swiftly heading out towards the rushing cyber dragon; followed by several mask wearing insects with an exceedingly foul odor that could make even machines rot, armed with several grenade pods in its back. These very insects were part of the Megacolony's Toxics Unit, a unit that specialize in chemical based combat, mainly involving really soul tormenting smells. The humanoid insects pointed their weapons and unleashed their grenades in the way of the charging cyber dragon's path.

A strange mist of greenish yellow had formed before the path of Mobius, that braced through the artificial fog without stopping, and soon found itself crashing across the solid earth. Before it could realize what had happened, the cyber dragon's gaze was met with Bloody Hercules's dual machineguns. A rapid volley of shots violently erupted into the face of Mobius, thus ending the cyber dragon's very consciousness.

Watching all this from a short distance away, far enough to escape the murderous scent that was renowned for getting people to puke in the middle of the battlefield like a never ending oatmeal colored waterfall. Ector had only one thing to say about what had they just witnessed live in front of their very eyes, 'What the heck is Megacolony doing here?!'

The exclamation had caught the attention of Hercules and some members of the Toxic Unit, who turned to march towards Ector's group. Ector's trio stood ready to take down the oncoming insects, with Akane preparing her whip to follow up with an attack. Hercules's group stood some distance before the trio, and said, 'Well I'll be damned, we seem to have run into a couple of paladins here on our little trip.'

'Should we take them in sir?' asked a Toxic Trooper that was eager to dispatch one of his grenades on the paladins before him.

'Perhaps, but we'll just have to see...'

'Alright bug brains what do you want?!' exclaimed Ector, who had his sword ready to take on these insects that had popped out in the middle of nowhere and had taken down one of the invader's cyber dragons capable of 'Lock' like it was a walk in the park, 'You should know better than to take us on...'

'Is that a threat from you, paladin?' Hercules shot back, pointing one machinegun towards Ector, with the other standing by his shoulder, 'I don't mind if we happen to run into some collateral damage upon return from this mission...'

Hermit was preparing his staff for an charged energy shot with Lamorak drawing his cleaver as the opposing Toxic Unit soldiers did the same by drawing their flamethrowers and priming their grenades for the possible incoming clash.

'Halt your antics Hercules!' a voiced exclaimed from a distance, as a humanoid fly emerged from the nearby earth. The new arrival was like most of the mutant insect members of the organization, primed with a beam cannon weapon on the palm of it's hands, this particular insect was although weak, held a crucial position in running the organization's operations, most of which include hit jobs, stealth operations and the occasional promoting of the insect guns for hire all over the planet, 'It's not exactly polite to harass our clients like that you moron! That's how you lose business these days!'

'Vesper, I'm surprised you decided to drop by for once...' said Hercules, as he was interrupted with a blast to the face, that sent him flying and toppling several Toxic Unit members standing behind.

'Idiot...' said Vesper, he was renowned for his tactical genius of executing various operations, but rare was the day his combat abilities would ever be used, most shots normally went towards any subordinate that was screwing up the plans. Once he could forgive as error, twice meant stupidity, but three times meant that it was deliberate, which normally meant a shooting rampage for this insect officer. He turned towards Ector's startled group, and presented a form of a smile that insects could manage to show to humans, 'I apologize for my colleague's stupidity, he's quite the hot blooded type that botches all sorts of well planned actions.'

'Well, I'm surprised that you guys actually fight among yourselves.' replied Ector.

'It's more of a disciplinary action than fighting. But enough about that bumbling brute, allow me to ask this, what is your little band of paladins doing here?'

'That should be our question to you!' exclaimed Lamorak, who drew his cleaver to point the blade in the face of Vesper, 'You bugs just show up from nowhere and just took down the invaders like it was nothing! And next thing we know you show up trying to get all diplomatic on us?!'

Ector turned to have Lamorak lower his weapon, but surprised at the fact that Vesper didn't flinch in the face of a potential death by cleaver. 'I must say you have quite the team here paladin, it's rare to see such...unique members in the battlefield.'

'The name's Ector man,' replied Ector, as he sheathed his sword into his back holster, with the assumption that this one Megacolony member was by far, not hostile at this point, 'But my buddy here's got a point, why are your kind here? Shouldn't you be off raiding Neo Nectar like you always do?'

'Well I don't know how exactly you paladins perform around here, but we do know that you people seem to kick up a fuss over our little collection runs we make there. But enough about that, I'll tell you why we're here. But first have a seat, I'll have our medical teams see to your wounded.'

Surprised at the sudden proposal, Hermit gave a slight nod of approval. It was a situation that could get out of hand should a single wrong move be made by either side. Either way, Ector's team was at a serious disadvantage.

As the group settled themselves around the unconscious Liz, Medical Battler Ranpli knelt on the ground to start performing his healing abilities upon the girl. 'Relax young one, I'll heal you soon enough.'

'We've got eyes on you bug,' said Randolf, who was completely uncomfortable of leaving one of their own in the hands of old foes, 'You'd better not try anything funny, or else...'

'Relax oh grumpy one, you sure haven't changed since last time.' replied Ranpli, who continued to direct his focus to healing his patient, under the watchful eye of Akane, the two birds hovering over the insect, Randolf and Lamorak himself.

Meanwhile, Vesper was continuing his little explanation to Ector and Hermit, 'So you see, we have a very good reason to continue our hunt for these invaders.'

'Even so,' said Hermit, 'How will we know if you don't become possessed by their cursed energies in doing so?'

'Our boys back home have their...'methods' to say the least.'

'Still, how can we be sure that these new 'weapons' of yours don't come back to kill us all once the invasion is beaten back?' asked Ector, upon hearing about a top secret Megacolony project that Vesper had disclosed had him worrying about the future, something he'd commonly did his whole life.

'Rest assured paladin...or Ector was it?' replied Vesper, who was checking on his arm weapon's configuration system as he continued, 'These new brothers of ours will put these invaders down before anything else. That is of course, we don't get a job to send them coming for you.'

'I'll be sure to come for you first when that happens.'

'Well threatened, paladin. But until then, I'd like to offer my services to you.'

The statement had sounded somewhat weird, but the clueless Ector hadn't realized the irony of it just yet, 'What kind?'

'Our forces, offered to fight alongside you, to assist you in anyway we can to help the push for the planet's freedom.'

'Coming from you, that's somewhat hard to believe.' said Hermit, who's suspicions about Vesper's motives were skyrocketing as the conversation continued.

'Even so, we actually mean it. In fact, I'll personally lead them alongside you should you request it.'

'Hmmmm...' muttered Ector under his breath.

'Please tell me you aren't actually considering their services?' asked Hermit, with clear concern over the leader's current thoughts.

A brief moment of contemplation later, Ector faced Vesper's insect face to say, 'I'll consider it. It's not a direct yes, but it's not no either.'

That statement delivered the facepalm Hermit had hopped to miss for this day, 'You can't actually be this seriously serious?!'

'What?' asked Ector, who was surprised over Hermit's little fumble over language, 'So much time of learning under the giants and you come up with that?!'

Hermit grabbed Ector by the neck and pulled him back from Vesper, 'I need to borrow this nitwit for a bit.'

With one hand around Ector's neck, Hermit exclaimed softly, 'Have you finally lost it?! You've just sold us to our one other mortal enemies! What do you think they're gonna think about this?!'

'Hey Hermit buddy could you just...ugh..arggg...' choked Ector, who was feeling Hermit's brief choking might just to curb his own personal rage, before slowly releasing for the black knight to catch back his breath, 'Arghhhh...Man I'd never knew that you were that good too.'

'A lot has changed during the course of your little holiday, this was one of em!'

'To think we both used to get our asses kicked back at the Academy.'

'Ah good times.' said Hermit, as the duo slowly mesmerised the days back in the Academy of 'getting your butt kick for a living', as defined by Ector during post graduation and inauguration.

'Yeah...I think its time to get drunk...'

'You already are dammit!' exclaimed Hermit, who did another choke to his captain just for the heck of doing it, but letting him off awhile later.

'Ugghhhhhh...would you just lighten up already? I have a plan over that little contract with Vesper.'

'Oh really? Care to share it?!'

'It's not time yet. Though if you want to, pay up.'

'Do you need another choking?'

Ector had finally gathered enough energy to force himself out of Hermit's grip, to return to the interrupted conversation between him and Hermit, 'Alright man like I said, we have a deal.'

'Unlike most of your kind, you're the first to see us as allies on the field,' replied Vesper, 'It would seem that my force has misjudged you for being hostile.'

'We get it all the time.'

'So you say, anyway,' said Vesper, who took out a small pouch and gave it to Ector, 'Take this. It will serve you well should the 'Lock' ever stand in your way.'

Ector handed the pouch to Hermit, as the Medical Battler Ranpli approached the trio, 'Sir, the troops are ready to depart with the spoils, we're awaiting your arrival.'

'It would seem that it's time to depart...'said Vesper who turned to leave, 'I look forward to the day of fighting, paladin!'

As the Megacolony forces pulled the webs conjured by Karma Queens and Lady Bombs that held the dead empty shell of Mobius, Vesper was approached by Hercules, with a blast impact still on his body's skin.

'Sir, what did you suggest to those paladins?' asked Hercules out of curiosity, and the fact that Vesper himself had stepped in to stop him from steamrolling the small band of paladins had him riling with questions over his superior's actions.

'I merely set us up with another client. That is all.' replied Vesper coldly, as he continued threading down the underground tunnel, 'It's more of a long term plan for the sustainment of the organization.'

'But what if it doesn't pay off?'

'It will oh foolish one,' replied Vesper, as he unleashed his beam weapon towards the tunnel's top interior, releasing a small avalanche of rocks, dirt and rubble to block their entrance, 'They will request our services eventually, and when they do, we will gain a lot more than those petty overprotective fools could ever provide for our services...'

Meanwhile aboveground, Ector's team surrounded the makeshift bed of various fabrics that Liz laid unconscious on. Primgal's concern was clear for all to notice with its continuous soft squeaky growls, so was Lamorak's own sign of worry towards his little sister. 'How's she doing?' asked Ector, who had returned from the little near life threatening conversation between him and Vesper.

'She'll come around,' replied Akane, who has a form of expertise in medical arts, thanks to spending the majority of her life taming and treating various high beasts, 'According to that Ranpli, it's nothing much to worry about, though it will take some time for her to recover. The invader's powers can only be removed partially upon being affected by it.'

'That's some really whacked up stuff there,' said Randolf, who had started to take an interest regarding this so called power the invaders utilize, 'Isn't it quite impossible for such a power to even exist?'

'True,' replied Hermit, who always had a knack for suspecting almost everything around him, even the very reason why everyone in the Sanctuary always walk down the path of knighthood, 'But this force...it isn't naturally created that's for sure.'

'Regardless of whatever it may be,' said Ector, 'We still have a job to finish. We'll have time to chuck the heck out of their minions once this is all over.'

As the others we're preoccupied with that little discussion, the little orange puppy stared at the unconscious elf's peaceful sleeping face, and realized that she was coming round. He crept forward to give a small lick on her left cheek, which Liz felt the full force of that particular action, and immediately opened her eyes from her brief slumber. The first thing that caught her attention was the little puppy that became excited over her awakening and had leaped into her sights.

'Primgal!' said Liz excitedly, as the little puppy returned a squeaky bark back to her, 'You just can't wait for me to get up, can you?'

The others had only noticed that Liz awoke upon her little exclamation, Lamorak felt over the moon the moment he saw her awoke before his eyes, a massive burden had been lifted from his weary shoulders now. He let out a large sigh over that little matter, as Ector initiated a high-five for Lamorak who connected it.

'Well! Guess you guys sure know how to keep us waiting around don't you!'

The sudden exclamation had made the entire group to turn behind towards it, in the distance several oncoming figures were walking towards them. Soon enough, the figures were identified as Knight of the Explosive Axe Gornement, his apprentice Uncompromising Knight Ideale, a blonde human sized giant Powerful Sage Bairon, one of Akane's close colleagues High Dog Breeder Seiran, the fully armored high dog Rendgal, another humanoid sized giant Silent Sage Sharon, a full armored high owl Giro, and a piped sized gnome by the name of Govannon.

'Guys!' exclaimed Ector as he and Hermit sprinted towards the large group that had appeared before them, 'You're all here!'

'Well we couldn't just stay still while things are getting out of hand now can we?' said Bairon, as Sharon tried to hide herself behind her older brother from being seen, 'Sharon not now, come on.'

'Sharon, is that you?' asked Hermit, as he stepped forward to get a closer look, 'It is you!'

'It's not like I want to come here!' Sharon shot back, with her blush painfully clear for the knight, sage and Hermit to see, 'I only came along because brother asked me to come along to help out! Nothing more!'

'She's a feisty one isn't she?' whispered Ector to Hermit, which was unfortunately loud enough for Sharon to eavesdrop upon.

Hermit narrowed his eyes over his buddy's little accusation, 'If you think for one second I have a thing for her I'll...'

'Ector you jerk!' screamed Sharon as she had a charging energy shot about to be released in point blank range of the black knight.

'Oh god What!'

'Now now sis,' said Bairon as he gripped Sharon by the arm, 'No shooting our own people.'

'Great! Thanks man!'

'Unless of course they happen to forget your name,' continued Bairon who released his sister's arm to continue the charge, with a malicious smile that was as clear as day.

The energy shot blasted into Ector's face, and sent him flying straight in the opposite direction. The black knight landed onto the thick solid earth feeling numb all over, not that it was the worse case of pain he could have ever felt.

Gornement came round next to Bairon and saw what had just happened, it had filled him with delight that the guy who blew up the TV was getting his little well deserved payback. 'Guess no more TV shooting eh Ector?!'

Hermit felt that his buddy had deserved enough punishment for now, and decided to bring back the subject, 'So I'm assuming you guys dealt with your part of invaders?'

'No sweat man,' replied Gornement, as the current temporary leader for that particular group, 'And it was a strange thing actually, the area you told us to assault...it wasn't exactly worth the effort.'

'What are you saying?' asked Ector, who had managed to brace through the numbness and drag himself back to the conversation, 'The invader's were too easy to handle?'

'Well after taking down about half a dozen camps,' replied Seiran, with Rendgal following close behind as Giro flew by to join up with its fellow battle owls, 'the ones here were like, not even trying. The security at the camps were much more coordinated than the ones we fought here.'

'Hermit, care to share something with us?' asked Ector, as everyone's gaze now turned towards the staff carrying energy blasting human.

'Forget that people! We've got company!' exclaimed Govannon as he pointed towards the sky, 'And it's coming in fast people!'

Just like before, everyone swiftly scattered away from the rapidly expanding shadow, as this time a gargantuan sized machine landed onto the earth. On the massive figure's armor, the term CG-0011003 could be distinguished from afar, and goes by the name Twilight Baron, according to the various forces that had lived long enough to bring up its name to their fellow allies.

'Well guess we should've took Mobius on,' said Ector, as everyone else rallied along side at least one person for the coming battle, Ector by Hermit and Lamorak, Akane with Seiran, Gornement alongside Bairon, Ideale next to Randolf, Liz standing by Rendgal and the barking Primgal, Govannon and Sharon as the trio of battle owls took to the skies.

'There's no running from this one guys! Time to hit it!' Ector exclaimed as swords, cleavers and massive hammers were drawn, whips were cracked, as staffs and books began gathering charge.

The gigantic cyber golem swiftly swung its massive weapon dubbed the 'Clamity Bringer' by fellow veterans who'd witnessed the weapons truly destructive force. Upon the weapon's landing, a thunderous thud made a large patch of the ground erupt into a massive splash of earth, nearly reaching the Baron's height.

Right behind the golem, Hermit, Bairon and Sharon had managed to mobilize fast enough to build up a charge, for what was to smack the golem's back like a wrecking ball, 'By the power of the Sages, we summon forth! Sage Saver Strike!' all three of them screamed in unison, as a huge ball of unstable energy launched towards the Baron. The energy ball struck its target head on, leaving behind a massive pile of smoke upon impact.

Baron suddenly found itself taking massive damage from the rear, which was the one instrumental weakness of these massive machines of destruction. By its left and right flanks, two teams of paladins began their simultaneous attacks to strike down the disabled golem in its tracks.

'Alright boys! Shatter it down!' commanded Seiran as he landed his knuckles onto Baron's upper arm, followed by Rendgal's furiously shattering slash with Primgal doing a litte headbutt as its contribution from looking just cute.

'It's showtime!' yelled Akane as she charged alongside Randolf and Liz to deliever exceedingly brutal whips, slashes and blows to the Baron's thigh, with the three high owls coming down for swift scratches to go along with the combo.

At opposite ends of the Golem, Gornement, Ideale, Lamorak and Ector went along with their own brand of tag attacks towards its remaining unstruck parts. Leaping into the air, Ector and Lamorak left to deal with the head as the dynamic duo below charged towards the front.

'This won't leave anything left standing you gigantic piece of walking skunk junk!' screamed Gornement who delivered his massive Axe onto the Baron's front armor, as his apprentice followed suit. Leaving behind a massive dent on the supposedly invincible armor of the cyber golems.

Landing by both sides of the head, both knights gave one another a nod as they began delivering slash after slash of sharp pointy metal into the Baron's head, shattering it's whole processing abilities, leaving only armor split apart by their hand. Throughout this whole combined assault, Govannon just stood by his new positon taking potshots at the Baron from afar, and had luckily missed out on any friendly fire.

As everyone dispersed from the golem's massive collapse onto the ground, they felt like as though a massive victory had been achieved. All of the various paladins and fellow high beasts soon gathered around to regroup, that was until...

From out of nowhere, orange blade wielding cyberoids emerged into the area. Still high with morale over the Baron's defeat, the paladins were caught completely off guard. As the first blade clashed, only did they regained their alertness over what was happening.

Randolf and Lamorak had managed to intercept their blades before a blow to their backs could be dealt, as two of the other new arrivals slowly marched from behind to follow up with several more attacks.

Hermit could only stare in horror as he realized what was going to happen, 'You two! Get the hell back now!'

Realizing that his allies were about to get struck by that 'thing', Ector rushed towards the duo ahead, only to witness the cursed power implode before him.

The two knights screamed with pain as the black rings encircled them, sealing their powers and knocking them out for the moment, but also restricting any form of movement should they regain their consciousness. Ector could only stand in horror as his allies were 'Locked' before his very eyes, as the other members rushed towards his aid.

'Behind you Liz!' exclaimed Akane as another cyberoid brought its blade down onto the pink haired elf, as she barely managed to clash against the oncoming blade. Her eyes widened as the cyberoid's blade suddenly started to glow with black energy, but before she could find out what was going to happen, she was pushed away by Gornement as the blade struck the giant elf's white armor. 'Arghhhhhh!'

'Gornement!' exclaimed the Liz, who quickly got back up to try to reach her savior, but was stopped by Akane who rushed to protect the youngest member of the team, 'Get back Lizzie!'

The cyberoid that had struck the wielder of the explosive axe had managed to make its way to behind the female breeder, 'Behind you!' Liz pointed out as the blade was raised before her eyes.

Just like that, a blow was struck onto Akane's back, as the black rings encircled her she quickly pushed the young knight away, to prevent her from being sealed along side her, 'Aaaaahhhhhhhh!' screamed Akane as she fell onto the ground.

'Get back you cursed beings!' exclaimed Bairon, as he let out a quick energy shot to disperse the cyberoids from attacking. Sharon swiped Liz's hand as an attempt to quickly pull her back from the enemy's range.

At opposite ends of this current engagement, Ector had froze completely still. Fury...Anguish...these emotions began to intensify within his mind, the rage that he had kept in check over the past month had finally...found its way out into the world once again...just like that one time...that nearly costed him everything...

'HarrrrggggghhhhhH!' screamed Ector as he became engulfed with his rage, and charged towards the two cyberoids before him that had 'Locked' Lamorak and Randolf before him. Hermit saw what was happening, and exclaimed to his buddy, 'Ector! Don't do anything reckless!'

But the words did little to nothing as the black knight gripped his weapon tighter than ever, and made a slash towards the cyberoid duo, only to be blocked by two blades stood in the way of his thirst for vengeance.

It was your fault...that all this had happened...just like before...

Those words had added oil to the burning inferno within Ector, who's fury had multiplied, but that made no progress in trying to breach the blades in his way. Instead, the two blades started resonating with black energy, and moments later the blades blasted the black knight away from their position, sending him flying into the dirt.

'No way...' said Hermit, who'd just realized something that had just developed before him as Bairon snapped him back to reality, 'Hermit! Get that barrier up now!'

Hermit shook his head back to his senses, and proceeded to seal his staff onto the ground. As the weapon stood firmly, Hermit uttered a few incantations only the Sages could comprehend, and energy started to be released into the area around the group. The energy dispersed like water would flow on the surface, and began engulfing the area in a barrier. The cyberoids around them quickly backed away from the forming energy barrier, as the energy was capable of forcibly ripping whatever it deemed hostile or non-friendly within it, and was thus dubbed the 'Death Dome Defense'.

Within the energy barrier that housed everyone, including all four members of the team that were struck by 'Lock', laid on the solid brown earth, unable to move, with their systems completely disabled over the period of the 'Lock'. Ideale rushed towards his fallen master, Seiran, the high dogs of Primgal and Rendgal along with the battle owls Alabaster, Miru Biru and Giro mobilized towards the red-headed downed breeder. Liz headed towards her fallen brother, while Bairon and Sharon went on to asses Randolf's condition at the moment.

This whole time, the black knight just sat there, deep in thought over what had happened. Hermit approached his buddy to investigate what had just happened. 'Status report Hermit.'

'...Fine...' said Hermit, as the cyberoids outside began pounding the energy barrier in hopes of breaking it down, and fulfilling the purpose for their creation, 'As we stand, we are four members down...and three of them are deep in thought over their partner's downing, which now puts us at a standing force of just four...'

'Hmmm...'

'What were you thinking man?! I thought you were okay with going along with this?! And yet you still go all berserk on us again?!'

'HERMIT! You should have known that this was a possibility of happening!' Ector screamed as he got up to face his ally, 'I...have made mistakes before...ones that nearly costed...her...and everyone else...' said Ector, as he suddenly put his head down in regret over what he had done, not just now but rather back when that 'incident' had occurred.

Hermit knew that this wasn't the time for arguments, though the invaders wouldn't exactly mind a quarrel if it gets them what they desire so much. 'I'm sorry man...We all knew that what had happened wasn't expected...'

Ector stood in silence for a moment, as the blade beatings started becoming more and more intense with each passing second. The barrier was going down soon, and potentially so will the fellow knights within it.

'Alright that's enough...' Ector finally spoke as Gonavvon just stood nearby watching the scene unfold before him. 'Well about damn time man, any longer and I would've just shoot you for the heck of it!'

Ector turned to meet Govannon's gaze, 'Guess I should've stayed quiet a little longer, then I wouldn't have to pay for your services anymore eh?'

'Why you...'

Hermit let out a brief laugh over his friend's little statement, and returned to his ever formal tone, 'Well guess you're not in your little depression anymore.'

'Yeah well, some things are just meant to be delivered into the face of those coward cybernetic whackos.'

'Well good to have you back. But more importantly, how did you escape from being locked?'

'Wait he did what?!' asked Govannon, who was also deep in shock over what had just been brought up, something that was thought to be impossible.

'Yeah, I've noticed...' replied Ector, who looked around his armor for some kind of protective device or mark that was guilty of protecting him from the 'Lock', 'It's strange on how this had happened...But let's deal with that later, right now we've got to get us out of here, no matter what!'

'With four of our members down, how do you suggest on doing that?' asked Hermit, who released his staff from the ground, ready for some energy flicking action.

'Simple,' answered Ector, who once again drew his sword that had a skyblue blade on the top of the weapon, as the remainder of the sword was just plain old generic metal forming the weapon, 'We'll just take them down first before they take us. At this point it's four against...er, how many of these things are again?'

'I'd say about...six to eight Heartless ones out there, possibly more coming in soon... Shouldn't be a problem though, seeing as these things are rare but easy to take down.'

'Don't get cocky now buddy, unless you wanna make more prison pals.'

The barrier was weakening, as evidenced by the sudden drop of an energy fragment like a piece of glass. Soon enough, piece after piece of the barrier soon began to shatter, and eventually only a circular surrounded the two sides from each other. Bairon had entrusted Sharon to take care of Randolf as he joined the knight, Hermit, and gnome in the coming defense against the invaders.

Upon the next blade strike, the whole surrounding barrier had finally crumbled, and the next thing that happened was a Heartless one getting shot by three energy shots before Ector swung in a slash to put the cyberoid down in half.

'Protect the others! Don't you leave anyone undefended!' exclaimed Ector as Bairon and Govannon split from the others to protect multiple oncoming fronts of Heartless ones. 'Ready Hermit?'

'Batter up!' returned Hermit who swung his staff like a bat, and with it came an energy orb flying towards Ector himself. Before the projectile struck him in the face, Ector swung his sword to catch the orb with his blade. And just as the Heartless one before him saw this, it stared up towards the sky to see exactly where the projectile had flew towards, but never saw any sign of it as Ector delievered the cyberoid's head his sword with the energy orb attached onto the blade.

'Get some of this you lousy...!' exclaimed Ector as he threw his blade towards the oncoming Heartless ones. The sword flew and struck into the ground, as the numerous cyberoids passed by the weapon, an explosion was let loose by the energy orb attached to the sword. Charging into the smoke, Ector quickly recovered his weapon and fell back like a rushing wave.

All around the group, the Heartless ones continuously warped into the battlefield, as each one they lose, they would regain two more into the fold. The knights were clearly outnumbered by hundreds to four, and hope was fading fast as the cyberoids marched towards the immobile group.

'This is bad...' said Bairon, who released a charged energy shot towards a cluster of Heartless ones all clumped together in hopes of weakening several at once, 'We can't exactly hold out any longer!'

'Keep at it! We're members of Royal Paladin for crying out loud! We'll stand against the enemy through hell and back even if defeat was staring us right in the face!' exclaimed Ector, who had unknowingly brought back some bit of morale to the other three members of the team to join in the fight.

'This one is for Akane! Mush boys! It's knuckle time!' commanded Seiran, who headed towards the closest's Heartless one to deliever it a flurry of punches as Rendgal savagely slashed the approaching Cyberoids with lightning speeds.

'Clang!' went Ideale's hammer, as every oncoming Cyberoid was treated with a little taste of just how big of a dent a hammer wielding knight would deliver into the face of these mindless invaders.

'Don't you dare underestimate us for being little girls!' exclaimed Liz, who had Sharon backing her up with energy shots from afar as Liz went upclose with her saber to slice the Heartless ones like butter, as proven by the yellow glow that started flashing on her blade. Soon enough, she delivered what her brother called the 'Sero Slash'.

A swift frontal slice...followed by a downwards slash...finished with a mightier downward finisher...

The renewed confidence for the unit was just a brief moment of glory as in the distance, several Mobius Breath Dragons had descended quite a distance from where the battle was taking place. Their contribution, long range 'Lock' shots to reinforce the frontal force.

'Just wonderful eh Hermit?!' asked Ector, as he'd dodged an oncoming cyber dragon's 'Lock' shot that had almost gave him a head shot, 'Guess we're going down with a bang eh?'

'Not quite yet you fool!'

The exclamation had came from above their position, and for once the knights chose not to scatter from the expanding shadow. Descending before them was a black armored silver dragon, armed with two massive swords that held within the force of the Cosmos, something that held similar powers of destruction to that of a Guardian Dragon's own.

'Guess you've decided to throw a little party without inviting merry old me?'

Dignified Silver Dragon, or Silver for short, was Ector's mentor for his own good. Rare was the day a knight would be bestowed upon a dragon to guide the knight towards the path that he seeks, whatever it may be. The dragon's job was only to guide them, but not interfere with their own personal decision. Sadly though, Silver had always been a somewhat, 'acceptable' kind of mentor, with his occasional 'work' as he calls it, he barely ever does his job right. Although, should the battlefield call him, he will answer it, with twin silver swords drawn for some slashing!

'Silver!' exclaimed Ector, whose will to fight was refilled to the brink of 'let's dance till we drop already!', 'Bout time you decided to show up! Where the heck have you been?!'

'Didn't I tell you, I was off doing some work man!'

'If by work you mean that...'

Before Ector could finish, Silver had dashed towards the marching cyberoids to leave several of them slashed open with black energies crackling with defeat. Silver continued his sentence as he flew back, 'Shuuuushhhhh... Not in public my apprentice, I won't want such things be discovered so quickly and be ruined almost immediately.'

Ector frowned in disgust over his 'mentor's' little beg, but decided to pursue that matter later, with a little forced interrogation to follow. 'Alright whatever. Please tell me it's not just you, cause if it is...we're doomed...'

'You have that little faith in me don't you?!' exclaimed Silver over his apprentice's little snarky remark.

'I have a lot less faith towards you after so many calls about your particular work!'

Both black armored paladins had lightning traveling between both eyes as Hermit decided to break it up before things got worse, 'Quit it guys! You can get together after we're done with all this!'

'Fine buddy,' said Ector, as he stared into Silver's nearly expressionless dragon face to beg the question, 'So did you bring in backup or not?!'

'Actually man you're right, it's just me.' replied Silver, and for a brief moment of seeing Ector raging inside was a good enough repayment to the insult before, 'Nah I'm just kidding with you. I did bring in some folks.'

'Care to tell me who?'

'You'll see soon enough, and speak of the angel...'

Before the two black armored figures, a flashing blue light had crashed onto the surface of the battlefield. As the dust dispersed, a figure could be seen walking towards them, leaving piles of metallic remains left on the figure's landing zone. The slim figure was armed with 2 metallic gauntlets, with two teal colored ponytails that laid idly by her shoulders, and wore her bluish silver plated light battle armor dress that was a clear signal that she was part of the Sanctuary's most elite among the First Army. By her hand, a long bluish sword with a curved crossguard had caught the attention of the other paladins who'd just realized that they have arrived...

As the female knight approached the duo, Ector was completely stunned by the fact that his mentor had done two things right for once, and at the most crucial time of all times. First was actually showing up when he needed to, which was being speculated as being a kind of rigged arrival. Secondly was that before him was someone who was part of the team he'd never expected to see again...

'Ector, this is Julia, the current Captain of the Jewel Knights Corps remnants.' said Silver, who stepped back to give the two a little bit of alone time for each other, 'I'll be going off now...' Silver opened his wings and departed for the battle behind.

Ector was alerted over his mentor's little plan and immediately exclaimed, 'Hey!'

As clear as Silver's intentions were, Ector knew better than to pursuit his mentor for a little bit of payback, since it could wait at this point. 'So, guess Silver managed to convince you guys to drop by eh?'

'I'm assuming that you're in charge of this team are you not?' asked Julia, who had just shot back Ector's statement about Silver, the time for socializing was not now, not in the midst of all this fighting.

Ector was forced to retract his comments, as the female knight before him had sent signals of hostility towards him, just as he'd expect from members of that particular unit. 'I am the leader, since this whole thing started...'

'Alright then,' replied Julia, as she drew her sword and pointed the blade onto the earth, 'Rally your team, we're getting out of here soon. Make sure to leave not a single one behind'

'Wait leaving what?!' exclaimed Ector as Julia started dragging her blade along the dirt, forming a large circle in the process. Annoyed by Ector's lack of action, she exclaimed, 'What are still standing there for?! Hurry up and pull them back!'

As her little command left the black knight completely dazed on what was happening before him, he swiftly turned towards Hermit and exclaimed, 'Hermit! Pull everyone back! And form a perimeter around the guys within the 'Locks'!'

With his order clear as day, everyone immediately backtracked to the small circle where the Defense Dome had once stood, as Ector turned back to see Julia in action. She had stood completely still as the cyberoids soon came close enough to deliver a blow onto the standing blue knight. 'Hey get back!' exclaimed Ector, as Sliver flew next to him to stop his apprentice from disrupting Julia's plan.

'Don't man, she's got this.' said Silver, whose face was brimming in seriousness, 'There's a reason why she's called the Fearless Jewel Knight, so just sit back and watch the action.'

A Heartless one raised his blade high, preparing to lock away the female knight that just stood perfectly still. 'The trail of the Bluish blade shall show you the path, Brave Illumination!' exclaimed Julia, as she slashed her long sword deep into the cyberoid's frontal plating, with a brilliant blue explosion following the impact.

The bright blue flash blinded the knight and dragon as they shielded themselves with their arms. The light soon faded away, and before the duo were several knights that had laid waste to the advancing army of Heartless ones. From their backs, one was a tall red armored brown haired elf that held a halberd, and the other a white haired figure in a silver armored vest of some sort.

'Alright people, keep them away while I conjure up our little escape!' ordered Julia, as the four newly arrived knights raced towards the four locked paladins to protect them from the oncoming wave of Heartless ones.

'What the heck was that?' asked Ector, who had caught Julia's attention for a question that he didn't meant for her to answer as Sliver left for another battle behind.

'That is going to be our little escape plan, Mr...I'm sorry what was your name?' asked Julia, who found this brief moment an acceptable time for a little socializing.

'It's Ector you...' said Ector as Julia interrupted before he could continue, 'Right, Ector. The one that she'd brought along for that mission.' said Julia

Ector looked down with guilt as that 'mission' was mentioned, the black knight had slipped into his own personal depression once again. Julia approached him, and placed her hand onto his shoulder asking, 'Hey! Are you alright? Hey! Answer me!'

That little exclamation had brought Ector back to his senses, as he quickly answered back, 'I'm fine...I just thought that...'

'That what?'

'That...as one of the Jewel Knights, you guys still held some kind of grudge towards me over what had happened before...'

Julia kept a brief moment of silence, to give the black knight some time before deciding to respond, 'Ector, we all knew that you were involved...but since that day, we've got our own reasons to brush it off ...'

'Still...' Ector let out a brief growl before continuing, 'Sensei and I, we both failed to save Ashley...from them...'

'Even so...' replied Julia, as she forced Ector to stand up and face her in the eye, 'I've said before, it's not entirely your fault that what had happened before. Ashley had always been too trusting at times, but we're still going to bring her back, even if it means facing the invaders head on. That's how you guys started all this, didn't you?'

'Yeah...we did!'

'That's right! Which is why everyone else is still fighting against them for crying out loud! I don't know exactly what happened that day, but I do know this, you've led your team this far, don't tell me you're giving up on them now of all times!'

Around the two knights, Bairon and his fellow giants Sharon and Sybil kept firing energy shots towards the far out cyber dragons, as Ideale and Tracie joined together in downing every single closing Heartless one that came close to the downed paladins. From behind the defense lines, Sherry and Govannon let loose high velocity arrows and pistol shots to poke into the face of every cyberoid within their sights.

'Look around, they're all standing against the enemy because you brought them here! So will you lead them against the enemy and back, no matter what happens over the course of the invasion?!'

Ector had only one response to Julia's persistent pecking and nagging, as he let loose his sword towards an oncoming Heartless one, and rushed towards the downed cyberoid to bring it back for more upcoming beatings. 'For someone so fearless, you sure have a knack for nagging a lot.'

'Hey! That's not how you should speak to a girl you know!' exclaimed Julia, as she raised a fist to curse Ector in response to his little snarky comment.

'Julia!' exclaimed an exceedingly short white haired elf, with a small blue jacket and a midriff barring armor set carrying a somewhat large cleaver for someone her size, 'We're almost running out of breathing room!'

'Alright Tiffany, thanks for the heads up.' replied Julia, as she turned to Ector, 'Care to help me out with this?'

'My pleasure Captain Julia,' said Ector, gripping his sword and ready for action, 'Just watch your back while you do your thing?'

'Yup. And come along Tiffany.'

'Yes sister Julia!' exclaimed Tiffany who was followed by Primgal that came barking, indicating that he wants to come along for the ride.

'Alright let's hit it!' said Ector, The four paladins led by Julia raced around the group's enclosed position, with the blue knight dragging the earth with her blade, leaving a clear trail for the plan to get underway, with Primgal leaving a trail of yellow fluid as his little contribution as he followed Julia behind. Ector and Tiffany occasionally slashed away any Heartless one in range of an attack, the task made easier with the yellow fluid making the cyberoids go red with errors over this unexpected development.

Soon enough, Julia and her team had completed the circle's forming, with Silver and Hermit waited for their completion, after sending off several more cyberoids down to whatever cyber hell that awaited them. As Julia made her way to the centre of the circle where the duo backed away from, she placed her long sword into the earth, with a brilliant blue flash engulfing the entire circle...

'Any minute now captain!' exclaimed Ector, as everyone stood ready to embrace what was going to happen next. The circle was large enough include the sealed paladins within the black rings of 'Lock', so there was no worry for what was going to happen next...

The light soon intensified into a massive field of bluish energy force, and immediately afterwards it vanished instantaneously. The massive number of Heartless ones looked around for their targets, picking up absolutely no sign of any paladin.

With that, they concluded it was time for a retreat, and one by one each cyberoid warped away from the area. With the exception of the yellow fluid infested Heartless ones, who were completely disabled until the very liquid had dispersed.

Mobius Breath dragons took to the skies in retreat, as somewhere on the hill where the cyber dragons launched their long range attacks, a figure was staring at where the knights had just stood against their forces...'It would seem I have a worthy adversary...'

The combined Jewel Knights and Terran Company had managed to return to the relative safety of The Tavern, where the ones who had been 'Locked' were immediately sent to the building's makeshift Triage Centre to receive treatment from Elaine. At first healing all four at once was a daunting task, but had to be done to prevent the 'Lock' from dealing permanent damage to its victims. For now, Akane, Lamorak, Randolf and Gornement now laid asleep in a coma, with their fellow apprentices, colleagues and siblings waiting them by their sides.

As the others laid by their ally's sides, a downstairs by the bar, Ector sat in contemplation over the day's developments. Primgal leaped onto the table to give him a brief squeaky bark; in return Ector gave it a nice long brush of his fur.

Peace had returned to the Sanctuary for now, as the majority of interment camps have been freed from the Link Joker malice, which meant that the people were safe, for now.

Even so, the smell of a new adventure was on the brink of the horizon...well, make that four to be exact...

CARDFIGHT! VANGUARD: COMPANY OF TERRAN CHAPTER #1 END

NEXT: NOT A CHAPTER 2, BUT SOMETHING ELSE...


	3. Interlude: The Next Course

CARDFIGHT! VANGUARD COMPANY OF TERRAN

INTERLUDE

THE PLANET CRAY...

0830 HRS LOCAL TIME...

As the dust settles over the battlefield where a brave band of fellow knights, giants and high beasts clashed against the cybernetic invaders known as Link Joker, both sides had suffered massive losses over that day's one engagement.

Large interment camps of prisoners had been forcibly taken down in a matter of hours, freeing nearly thousands of civilians who raced towards the underground encampments established to house the citizens of the Sanctuary should an invasion break out. Now the invader's grip over the Sanctuary has waned for now, but the majority of the planet was still under the invader's control.

Despite their brave attempts to free the people from their prisons, several members of that particular force fell to the invader's cursed powers, known as 'Lock'. That power alone has led to many defeats by the defenders of the planet, by completely drained their will to fight, and sealing then in black encircling rings that kept them in place...

For now, peace has settled in the Sanctuary, but for one particular conflicted individual, the adventure was just about to restart itself...

THE TAVERN...

0835 HRS LOCAL TIME...

'Hmm...I think this one goes here...and here...'

Hermit was struggling to piece together the tattered glass screen that had been shot right in its face just a few days earlier. The blonde white armored youth was known as Mystical Hermit, but everyone refers to him as Hermit. Rather than following most of his fellow graduates in pursuing the path of knighthood, he'd embarked on his own journey to train under the giants that roamed the Sanctuary, thus developing his own style of fighting.

The Tavern was a place where many would gather to meet up, unwind or just get drunk, which was quite the common thing to do should you ever set foot into the place. Located underground beneath its main building, it normally would be packed with overzealous folks who'd attempt to get together with other people of the opposite gender. But day after day of relentless invading by Link Joker had brought about a halt into this activity.

Recently though, it has gotten slightly crowded again, with the arrival of a large group of paladins that were involved in a series of offensive strikes that led to the downing of four of their members and several exhausted folks. Now, the downed members were accompanied by their fellow siblings, associates and comrades up in the makeshift sick bay upstairs, where they stayed over the course of their return a day ago.

'You know for someone with your abilities, won't it be easier to just make a new screen instead of just putting them all back together?' asked Govannon. The piped sized gnome was the current owner of The Tavern, a title he'd inherited from the original owner who till this day has yet to return from the field. He was one of the Sanctuary's finest weapon smiths, capable of putting almost anything into a gut busting weapon of war or a priceless collector's item, depending on the materials and client. It was rumored that he was involved in the creation of the Sanctuary's super-weapons, a statement that he had neither confirmed nor denied till this day.

'Oh sure,' replied Hermit, as he stared into the eyes of the bartender, 'Like shooting glass would fix it back. You wanna lose the damn bar too?'

'Who cares? Until that lousy Ector gets a TV back to the Tavern I'ma gonna...'

'Gonna what?' asked the approaching masked black knight.

''What the? Where'd you come from?!' exclaimed Govannon.

Ector got onto his usual seat by the bar, with his own mug still untouched from days ago. The grayish silver armor that he wore was quite useful in terms of moving in pitch black areas, which was the reason most folks just refer to him as the black knight. What differentiated him from the Shadow Paladin's leader Blaster Dark was the inclusion of his silver mask, with a sharped edge vizer that simulated his will to fight. A sword laid in it's holster by his back, being more of a benefit than a burden to the leader of this merry band of paladins.

'Seriously guys?' asked Ector, 'You didn't bother to help with my cup?'

'Well it's been empty since the last time I've cleaned it, in which you didn't even ask for anything to DRINK!' replied Govannon, who slammed the table in mild frustration over his best client's little response, 'And where's my triple pay dammit?!'

'Pipe down a bit man, it's coming,' replied Ector, who pushed Govannon's face back onto his seat and passed him a firearm from his back holster, 'There you can have that.'

'Whoa...' responded Hermit, who was stunned over the fact that his buddy had just given the little gnome his most valuable and precious belonging.

'You've got to be kidding me,' said Govannon, as he held the blaster on the palm of both his hands, You're seriously giving me this?'

'There's more,' replied the black knight, who brought tossed a folded parchment onto the bar, 'You might enjoy that too.'

Govannon reached for the paper, and upon unfolding it came a gasp...

'How did you...' said Govannon, who's was more stunned than ever in these few weeks, 'This...just how?!'

'Let's just say we made a little deal back then, and that they're yours to hire should you need them. Just let me know. And about the gun, go ahead and go nuts with it.'

Hermit headed behind the bar to see what was the thing that had stunned the weapon making master, and he himself was shocked at the revelation as well. 'You're serious about this?!'

'Yeah why not?' answered Ector, as a light orange colored puppy with armor covering its ears and a monocle for an eye leaped onto the bar, barking for a little brush by Ector, who complied with a long brush around Primgal's back, who growled with pleasure as he continued, 'Besides, they did voluntarily offer their services, so I don't see why not. And with Govannon's own personal expertise, they'll be paid more that they bargained for.'

Hermit found Ector's little theory to be somewhat unbelievable, which was quite common in the fact that he tends to overestimate or underestimate most situations, but should he slip up, he'd immediately follow up with a plan B to salvage whatever possible from a situation., not to mention that he has an unrelenting concern over the well being of his team, every single one of them.

'Well back to business Hermit, I need to know how we currently stand.' said Ector, as he passed his mug forward for Govannon to fill up with his usual, plain old water.

Hermit gave a nod in response, by taking Ector's mug to fill it with his usual as the bartender was still going through the contract that he'd just received with excitement.

As Hermit passed the filled mug back, he gave a long sigh before beginning his long assessment about the team's current situation.

'As we stand, we're at a massive disadvantage. Currently, Lamorak, Randolf, Akane and Gornement are still in comas following their recent treatment. Lizzie, Gordon, Seiran and Ideale have been by their sides since we've returned.'

'Have they received their meals yet?' interrupted Ector.

'They have, as Govannon's amateur version of mashed potatoes and toast was decent...' answered Hermit.

'Hey! Don't insulting my dishes you picky wannabe Hermit!' exclaimed Govannon over the staff wielding paladin, 'I don't see anyone else around here complaining about food other than you!'

'Enough of this guys, you can both get together later,' interrupted Ector, as keeping his team's relationship with one another was essential in making sure there aren't any mid mission mayhem between one another, especially with so many swords, giant cleavers and whips around, 'But for now...Govannon, try brushing off a insult or two, and Hermit, quit being a critic! We call you Hermit for god's sake!'

'Right...' replied Hermit, holding back his urge to blast the crap out of the piped sized bartender for that one serving of potatoes that made him stuck in the toilet all day long.

'Anyway continue.'

'We currently lack manpower to launch a follow-up attack, as the others aren't exactly keen on working with us...'

'Why's that?'

'Cause all of them aren't exactly spilling anything unless it's you they're talking too. So basically we're stalled until you get us up and running again.'

'Silver and Julia I can understand, but what about Bairon?'

'He said something about doing research about someone and wanted you to drop by the library upstairs, probably because he'd be done with his little research by then. Oh and say hi to Sharon for me would you?'

'Hermit...do you have a thing for Bairon's little sis?' asked Ector, who stared into the face of his buddy to see his reactions over his accusation.

'Absolutely not! What the heck is wrong with you?! Going all 'do you have a thing for someone' on people?!' exclaimed Hermit, who was slightly red in his cheeks.

Ector sat there to relish in his friend's embarrassment, the fact that Hermit was studying under the sages it was unsurprising that he'd probably have the hots for someone, especially someone of the opposite gender. 'Alright man no need to freak out...'

Hermit let out a sigh of relief, any longer and a panic shot would've sent the black knight flying across the Tavern, 'Ahem...' Hermit cleared his throat, 'Anyway, if we're going to get going again, we'll be needing two things. One, additional manpower to back us up. In case you hadn't noticed, we nearly got overrun last time, and that almost our entire team is down over a few casualties. If it weren't for Silver and Julia, we won't be sitting here now...'

'Right...'

'Basically we've got to get more folks into the fold, the more the angry invader hating people we have, the more easier it is to push them back to whatever cyber place they came from.'

'I'm assuming that I'm on my own for this one?'

'Well yeah...and that someone's gotta defend the place with you off doing your stuff. Besides you've got this, talk to Silver, Julia and Bairon to get their propositions, with that you'll decide on what to take up. I'm thinking that they have the same plan as us, so go ahead with it.'

'Well it's not the first solo operation in awhile, let's get to it then...' said Ector who turned to get up from his seat.

'Not so fast man, we're not done.' interrupted Hermit, as Ector held his ground to listen to what was left of Hermit to say, 'Another thing that we need are medical folks. Getting 'Locked' by the invaders is going to be inevitable, so we're going to need lots of medics to back us up in the future. Elaine can only handle so much.'

'Hmmm...fine...we'll get it done...'

'With that, you know what to do. I'd suggest you get to it, Ector.'

With those words, the black knight stood by the bar, surveying the Tavern's interior. To the left the Jewel Knights sat by playing cards with Julia leaning by the wall, to the right Silver in his human form stood by the jukebox playing a western style tune, which was fitting to the currently casual and peaceful setting. By the table where the Jewel Knights gathered, a staircase that led up had light setting down from above. From where Ector stood, he headed off to his first destination...

OKAY FROM THIS POINT ON THE NEXT FOUR INTERLUDES COULD HAPPEN IN ANY ORDER, SO FEEL FREE TO SKIP AHEAD TO FIND THE CONVERSATION YOU'RE LOOKING FOR!

INTERLUDE: JEWEL KNIGHTS ENCOUNTER

Ector made his way towards the left of the Tavern, where the fellow female knights were busy playing cards to notice his coming. The Fellowship Jewel Knight Tracie, with her long brownish ponytail and massive halberd by her side, had a joker and an 8 as her hand. Her sister Stinging Jewel Knight Sherry seated to her right, had long blonde hair that stretched around her back and her bow and arrows, held a 2 and a 4. Both elves's armor was almost similar to one another, especially with the bright red magical jewel embed onto their weapons.

Across the table, a piped sized elf with long white hair was unable to sit still as she had a devious grin on her face. The Dreaming Jewel Knight Tiffany was known to be quite the restless one, even in quiet turned based games such as this. Her cleaver about the size of her small body sat idily on the chair beside her, as she held a Joker and a 6. To Tiffany's right was the Dogmatizing Jewel Knight Sybil, who's brilliant white battle dress barred her midriff slightly, remained extremely calm as she drew a card for her turn. On her hand was a Joker, 7 and the newly drawn 5.

Sybil took the 7 and placed it right next to the deck, forming the starting pile. 'I end my turn.' said Sybil, as the piped sized little knight reached for the deck, and drew a 3. She immediately slammed the 3 onto the pile, and exclaimed, 'I play duel, against Tracie!'

Tiffany revealed her 6 towards her target, who in turn revealed an 8, 'Nice try Tiffany, but it seems that you're out.'

'No waaaayyyyy!' exclaimed the little elf, as she revealed her entire hand and sat in dismay over that little defeat.

'My turn,' said Sherry, who reached out to draw a 2. She then played her Joker card, 'I'm sorry sis, but I need this. I accuse you for having number 8!'

Tracie knew that this was coming, as the duel with Tiffany had forced her to reveal her only other card that would've saved her. Tracie placed her cards aside as she sat back to watch the duel between her younger sister against the ever focused Sybil.

'My turn then,' said the glasses wearing white armored scholar, as she drew a Joker and played a 3, 'I play duel against you Sherry!' She revealed her number 5, as her opponent was shocked over that one card, and proceeded to reveal a 4. 'Well guess I've won.'

'No fair! Let's go again!' exclaimed Tiffany and Sherry simultaneously, as Ector interrupted the group, 'Quite a game you ladies got there.'

The four knights turned to see the black knight behind Tracie, with them expressing slight caution over the new arrival. Tracie stood up to break the brief silence between the two sides, 'Something up Ector?'

'Yeah, I'm actually here to...' said Ector, as he turned to see what the sudden thud was about...

'I gotcha now Ector!' exclaimed Tiffany, who immediately sprang towards the black knight with her cleaver raised high to land onto his head. Ector stepped back and blocked the cleaver with his right arm, as the little knight pressed all her might in hopes of forcibly breaking through his defense.

The other three were completely caught off guard by their ally's sudden attack, and quickly sprang to remove the little elf from breaking Ector's arm. Sybil and Sherry raced to pull Tiffany away from her weapon as it came clattering onto the floor.

Ector gave a sigh of relief, any longer and he would've lost an arm that was clearly losing against Tiffany's brute force. As the other two took Tiffany away in order to surpress her restlessness, Tracie turned to Ector to say, 'I'm sorry about that little fiasco, but you know Tiffany is always...'

'A little unstable? Yeah I got that.' replied Ector, who couldn't forget the fact that during his time with the Jewel Knights corps on that 'Mission' the little white haired elf was always looking for a brawl, sometimes even in the field, 'Anyway, I need to speak to Julia.'

'She's right there,' said Tracie who thumbed towards Julia leaning by the nearby wall, and turned back to break a question, 'and I have to ask, are you and her going to get together?'

Ector cringed over the female knight's question, and immediately shot back, 'Are you nuts?! Getting together with other people isn't my thing Tracie! And besides, doesn't she have loads of other knights going for her instead?'

'You say that now, but we'll see,' said Tracie, as she gave a chuckle, 'Well I guess I'll just leave the future couple together for a bit kay?'

Before Ector could shoot back, Tracie skipped away towards the other two who were trying to curb little Tiffany from another sudden attack towards him. He turned away and made his way to where the blue knight stood.

Unbeknownst to him, Tracie and the other three had knelt behind a table to take apeek at what was going to happen between their current captain and the black knight, which according to them was going to be quite the romance for them girls to enjoy.

'Are you sure about this sis?' asked Sherry, who had only her eyes and helmet above the table, 'I mean what if he doesn't have a thing for cap?'

'Here's where we find out sis,' replied Tracie, who was busy trying to focus on what was about to happen. 'But from what I can tell, he does have some interest in her...'

'Now how would you know?' asked Sybil, who laid her tome onto the table as carrying it was beginning to be more of a fuss, 'It's not like they were in the same class or anything!'

'They are actually,' replied Tracie, who grinned over the little connection that she'd managed to acquire form Lamorak back in the day, 'and it's said that he actually has a thing for her, with them being in the same class after all.'

'I kind of wished I got to hit him before he started though,' muttered Tiffany, who felt that her little contribution would be able to make their theory a little easier to prove, 'I'd always thought that he'd end up with...'

'Shush!' exclaimed Tracie softly, 'It's starting...'

The cyan haired twin tailed knight was shrugging in contemplation as Ector approached her. Julia was one of the few humans who had managed to enlist themselves into the near all elf elite unit of the first army, and was the best friend of Ashley back in their Academy days. Keeping watch over the oblivious Ashley had turned into a habit that she frequently implements towards her fellow knights, saving them from countless near-death situations against the invaders.

Her bluish silver plated battle dress had seen through many situations that would've drive typical knights running for their lives, and her personal weapon, a bluish sword with a curved crossguard, could easily turn the tides of a battle against overwhelming odds. Reckless as many would view her, but unshakable willpower has always been her greatest strength against everything that ever stood her way.

As Ector came close, she returned to standing position for the coming conversation. Ector spoke first, 'I don't know about you but did you noticed your team hiding behind the table back there?'

'Yeah,' replied Julia, who was trying to be in conversation with Ector in hopes of finding out her team's motives, 'Probably because they think I have a thing for you.'

'What?' asked a surprised Ector, who realized that the other four knights needed better things to do than this, 'That's the same thing they asked me! It's crazy right?!'

'Well yeah, I guess...' replied Julia as she chuckled and decided to return back to the main topic, 'Anyway, you have something to ask about?'

Ector nodded in response, 'Yeah, and it involves your team.'

'Explain.'

'Well we kind of have a problem, well make that two problems actually. First up we need more folks to back us up in the field. If it weren't for you guys back then, we would've...'

'So you're asking me and my team to join you guys?'

'Yeah...kind of...' replied Ector, as the female knight before him had just answered before he could ask.

'Hmmmm...' muttered Julia, 'Alright then, we'll join up. But we still need to bring in the others before...'

'Wait, you have others?'

'You didn't expect a five-man team to be all that's left of the Jewel Knights did you?'

'Well...'

'Figures, you've still got that problem since back at the Academy...Anyway, the point is that we need to reach the campsite in order to evacuate everyone back here. The camp is always on the move from one place to another, so they're always ready to move out. All we have to do is escort them back, and they'll be more than willing to help you guys out.'

'Sounds like a plan,' said Ector, who was wondering what the other four behind the table must be thinking at this point, 'Oh and do you ladies happen to have any medical experts?'

'Polly and Hirumi are more than ready to help out, as they did in the weeks before.'

'Well guess that settles that, so when do we head out?'

'As soon as you're ready for some action again that is...' said Julia, as she suddenly came closer to Ector and stared him right in the face, 'Are you really alright?'

Ector cringed over the fact the girl before him had just came too damn close for comfort, and imagined the four watching this would be filled with excitement over what was happening, 'Yeah I'm fine...'

'Don't worry about what happened so much, especially about Ashley...'

Ector could only remain silent over the mention of that name, as Julia leaned in towards his ear and whispered several words...Upon hearing that, Ector immediately asked back, 'No way...How...'

More whispers flowed from Julia, as she eventually leaped back and gave a smile, 'Well at least you're still the same as always. Don't ever change yourself kay?' said Julia as she gave a wink, 'I'll see you later then, old friend.'

As Julia skipped away from where Ector was completely stunned by the recent revelations, Tracie and her team were brimming with excitement over what had just happened. The blue knight soon came towards them as Tracie approached her captain to break the question, 'Well? How did it go?'

'Please tell me that you two have gotten together already...' said Sybil as she nudged Julia to spill what had just happened.

'Well if you want to know, pay attention during our next mission people.' answered Julia, as the four knights saluted with a 'Yes Captain!'

Ector looked up towards the Tavern's celling, now filled with a rejuvenated will to press on, answering the question that had plagued him ever since that 'mission'...

'What am I fighting fooooorrrrrrrr?!'

END OF JEWEL KNIGHTS ENCOUNTER

INTERLUDE: THE SILVER SOLUTION

Making his way towards the right of the tavern, where Silver Dignified Dragon was idling by the Jukebox. The U-shaped machine had always been the iconic symbol that defined this one hangout from being just another quiet, beer smelling dump swarming with future Megacolony recruits of roaches scurrying all over the place. Just as the track finished echoing its last beats, the machine started cranking itself to set up the follow up tune to keep the Tavern as sociable as possible. A black disc soon laid itself on the player, and with that a country beat started resonating, followed by beat after beat of country style funk as the lyrics went 'Never paid much attention when I was a kid in school...'

As the song continued on with it's singing, Silver looked up from his little tweaking with the Jukebox's various switches and buttons to notice Ector's arrival. The Silver dragon was the mentor for the black knight coming towards him, as part of a program where certain dragons who served the Sanctuary would be assigned a knight for them to guide towards the path they walk. Most knights who'd fit this category were the many graduates of the Academy that pursued the path of knighthood, and that it was a great honor to have a dragon assigned as one's mentor.

Other than the color schemes that their armors shared, both of them were nothing alike. Silver had two silver swords imbued with the powers that only guardian dragons were able to unleash upon their enemies, while his apprentice had only a single sword which was commonly used unconventionally, with incredibly unbelievable results. Silver's body was completely strapped with his silver plated armor, and despite being a lot smaller and capable of fitting in the underground bar, his human form was no different from his dragon form, minus the incredibly huge wings that enables massive flight abilities.

Ector knew what had to be done, but decided that a little interrogating in the process wouldn't jeopardize the plan. 'Alright Silver,' said Ector, looking up into the face of his mentor, 'where the heck were you?'

Unfazed by Ector's slight hostility, Silver took awhile to think of a comeback as to chill the current condition between the two, 'Man you've sure gotten a lot crankier since last time,' replied Silver, 'You need to lighten up a bit. And by the way shouldn't you go talk to your little girlfriend over there first?' Silver pointed opposite the bar towards the leaning cyan haired Julia by the wall.

Stunned by the response, an immediate return fire is needed, 'Are you crazy?!' exclaimed Ector, as he swiftly looked around in hopes of not catching anyone's attention, 'What in the world could possibly make you think that she and I have a thing for each other?!'

'Well I've heard from an associate of yours,' replied Silver, smiling in enjoyment, 'That you two seem to be in the same class together, and that you most certainly have a...'

Grabbing Silver by his armored collar and pulling him onto his mask, Ector responded, 'Now listen here Silver, I DO NOT HAVE A THING FOR JULIA!' said Ector emphasizing on the words from 'I' onward with intensity and precise pronunciation, 'So don't go all spreading rumors about something that is not true and NEVER WILL BE! Got that?'

Silver gave back a nod as Ector released him from his grip, 'Got it, kid.' said Silver wanting to remind his apprentice on who is more elder between them, 'And relax a bit k? You look really worried about something, or things.'

'Coming from my mentor who does an F-grade job, I have every reason to be worried.' replied Ector, as his mentor cringed over that hurting remark, 'But enough about that, I need your help Silver.'

'Well that was surprising,' smirked Silver, with clear anticipation of what was going to follow, 'But what makes you thing I will?'

Ector let out a fade growl of frustration, before responding, 'Please Silver, my team needs your help on this, more than you think.'

'Hmmm...' muttered Silver, brushing his chin with silver plated armor, 'Very well, on one condition. You'll have to tag along for a little work trip when this is over.'

'If by 'work' you mean fly off to the Dragon Empire just to catch one of those Dragon Dancer shows...I'm telling Soul Saver.'

Silver cringed at the mention of bringing up his little antics to Soul Saver Dragon, the current guardian dragon of the Sanctuary. As guardian dragon, it is her duty to not only protect the land, but also watch over the fellow cosmo dragons that serve the people, and that such acts of going off to the neighboring nation to catch a show would normally bring about a point blank range cosmos cannon in the face, followed by near endless hours of 'disciplinary action'.

'Don't you dare...' exclaimed Silver who trailed away for a second to think up several rebuttals to counter this argument, 'It's not like it's bad for us for something! Do you have any idea just how much of a pain it is for us to not have some form of entertainment as dragons?!'

'Well running off in the middle of a patrol isn't a pain eh?' Ector shot back, shrugging in the process.

'I tell you good sir,' responded Silver, with a slight change in accent as he normally does during certain statements, 'I actually finish my job before flying off to our merry old neighbors! And those shows are just the cup of tea for us all...oh Monica...'

With his mentor getting slightly horny, Ector had to snap him back into reality before Silver slowly drifts off into his little fantasy, 'You were still confessing over this?'

Stopping himself from picturing that red clothed dragon dancer form the Kagero clan, Silver found himself back, and had strangely followed Ector's statement without thinking much about it, 'Anyway it's not like it's just me, Gold also comes along for the ride almost everytime! There was also this one time where Tri-Stinger wanted me to book a couple of seats for him and Navalgazer, and don't get me started with that one time we dragged Sephirot along for the ride, man he was on fire over the course of that show, like actually on fire!'

Ector stood in silence over his mentor's sheer enthusiasm over the Dragon Dancer shows, but Silver wasn't done with his little ramble, 'Which is why Ector, you have every reason to agree on this little condition. It's transparently clear that there is nothing wrong with this!'

Standing in contemplation over the proposal before him, a decision had to be made. Not that it was surprising, Ector reluctantly agreed, saying, 'Very well Silver...' turning to look around the bar in hopes that nobody was listening their little conversation, 'I'll go along with this little...'

Before he could finish, Silver raised his index finger to signal his interruption and unfinished statement, 'But since you've brought up Soul Saver, I need you to keep your yap shut forever! No exceptions if you want this to proceed.'

Another moment of silent contemplation followed, this time with slight growls and unidentified swearing under Ector's breath, he finally responded, 'Fine Silver...' said Ector with a clear tone regret of what'd he'd just agreed on, 'But for now let's get down to business. So I need to know this, where the heck were you?!'

'As I've mentioned yesterday, I was off working.' replied Silver, who shrugged in preparation of the long statement ahead, 'This time it's actual real sweating work.'

A long sigh followed, as Silver began explaining, 'There is a place hidden in the Sanctuary called the 'Realm of the Gods', a place where it is said to hold great powers belonging to the land itself. Now don't go all thinking that this place houses some kind of a super weapon that would exterminate every single invader on the planet, cause it ain't.'

Ector listened closely to every single word Silver was spouting, as this wasn't like his typical 'busy with work' mentor that had done a 'decent' job at teaching him over the years as Silver resumed, 'Instead, we'll be dropping by to talk to the fellow gatekeepers of the place. They're human just like you, only filled with the Sanctuary's powers to dispose of anything that forces its way towards the realm.'

'They're a powerful bunch I found out, and that there's also a fellow dragon that actually commands this unit. If you want, we can drop by to see if we can convince them to join up, seeing as how just one of them had nearly killed me, it won't be easy, especially with all the invader's air force still flying all over the skies.'

'These people...' said Ector after a long moment of listening, 'That would be the plan, seeing as it's just the two of us against...how many are there?'

Silver's raised his shoulders in response to the question, 'No idea,' said Silver, 'But one thing's for sure, it won't just be them we have to deal with, those cyber nuts still hold the skies that's for sure. Getting there won't be easy, but I have some folks who can get us in, just let me know if you're ready and I'll arrange the operation.'

'Make it so,' replied Ector with a nod, 'We'll need to get this done ASAP. And tell me is there some kind of medical support that they might have?'

'Medical support?' asked Silver in response, 'Well I think that those humans up there must be kept alive by the place itself, seeing as they're almost never injured or exhausted at all.'

'In any case, get it done Silver,' said Ector as he turned to walk away from the black dragon and paused, 'So you still want your little Dancer tome that's still with me?'

Silver was immediately filled with red rage over what his apprentice had just brought up, and exclaimed, 'You'd better give that back soon Ector!'

'Why should I?'

'Because...' said Silver as he tiptoed himself close enough to ensure that he could whisper in secrecy, 'There's a new Dragon Dancer that's starting out soon and I really want to get some really good pics of her. From what I heard, she's quite the bomb!'

Ector could only fell disgusted over his mentor's obsessions over these Dragon Dancers, but if that was what it took to keep dragons from going abyssal and crazy then it was good enough for him, 'Fine you can have your damn book back! Just take the damn thing when we get back k?!'

'Oh good,' replied an overly relieved Silver as he backed away from whispering range, 'And trust me on this, you won't regret going there. Who knows? You might just meet someone there who might be competition for your little girlfriend there...'

'WILL YOU QUIT IT WITH THAT?!'

END OF INTERLUDE:THE SILVER SOLUTION

INTERLUDE: TRACKING THE TRIALS

Making his way towards the staircase that resided ahead, step after step of ascending the steps and soon enough Ector had finally arrived outside of a massive door on the

building's third floor. Approaching the giant wooden door, he turned the handle and pushed the door forward a massive effort as a loud creak herald his arrival into the library. The room was massive, about 4 times larger than the bar downstairs, basically occupying the majority of the building with the exception of the staircase that led up towards the last floor.

Before him, thousands of tomes and books laid idly on tall wooden shelves separated from one another by a few meters and arranged in the form of a massive n shape. An incredibly long wooden table with several wooden chairs and few broken ones filled the empty spaces around the rectangular table. The air smelled of the fresh scent of wood and dust, something that Ector wasn't too influenced by as proven by the mask he almost never takes off since he'd first wore it.

Fiddling by a bookshelf behind the Silent Sage Sharon who was busy concentrating on the book before her, Bairon looked towards the entrance to notice that Ector had arrived, and shouted, 'Hey Ector! Come on in!'

Almost immediately, the quiet female giant snapped at her older brother behind, 'Keep it down brother! This is a library for crying out loud!'

Bairon was startled by his little sister's sudden outburst, not that it was the first time that the blue sage had raged at him for making a 'loud' ruckus in a library. The blonde giant who wore only his blue bottom wear and blue arm sleeves strapped with silver armor was quite the powerful sage for his age. The red cape was a symbol of his identity, the super powerful sage who couldn't be bothered to wear something to cover his mass exposed upper body. He is the current representative of the sages, the giants of knowledge that had taught Hermit his energy blasting abilities, and with that he intends to put the invaders down along side the fellow paladins that dare to fight them.

He waved his palm to signal Ector to come forward, which Ector did slowly while surveying the massive room that he had just entered for the first time. Upon his arrival, Bairon started the conversation, 'So what do you think? Pretty big place eh?'

'Yeah,' replied Ector, who was still staring at awe over the sheer monstrous size of the room, 'This almost feels like it's bigger than the floor itself.'

'It is actually,' said Sharon who had turned to face Ector, 'This was the biggest room we could find so we had to make due with it, not to worry though, we didn't exactly bust a hole in the walls just to fit this place in.'

Sharon was Bairon's little sister, and was normally the silent keeper of the Sage's Temple, a massive place that resided at the highest places of the Sanctuary, only accessible to those who dare traverse high up the brutal mountains infested with life ending spikes all over the place. Unlike her brother, she wore a full covered dark green robe, with her personal Librarian Hat that laid idly on her semi-long light blue hair. She had red glasses that was the result of countless reading of tiny texts from mountain loads of tomes, which unleashed her special ability to look into the power of people, and help release into the world.

'This is just a temporary thing though, since bringing the whole library here would've crumbled everyone below, so we decided to settle with this section instead.' said Sharon, 'I'm not one to ask but this is the only place your team calls home?'

Ector gave a nod over the sage's question, 'Yeah,' replied Ector, who was still looking around in awe over the attractive architecture of the walls, 'It's not exactly some luxury barracks, but it has it's moments. Some of which are downstairs, and by the way how did you guys bring this whole damn place into this one room?'

'It's not easy that's for sure,' said Bairon, who was picking out another book from the nearby shelf, 'Bring this one room takes about nearly hours of channeling by ordinary mages, but for us it's a ten minute snap. Reminds me about the first time Hermit tried to channel a summoning, and he passed out just after two minutes! They don't exactly teach concentration a lot at the Academy do they?'

'Not quite,' replied Ector, as Sharon had turned away from the mention of Hermit, 'Most of the time it's just sparring, studying, more sparring, shooting, spell spamming and five on one sparring sessions with the seniors...basically not much.'

'Hey Ector,' interrupted Sharon, as Ector turned towards the female sage to see her slightly red on her cheeks while facing the tome before her to avoid his gaze, 'Is Hermit alright?'

'You're worried about him?' asked Ector in response.

'Um...it's not like I'm that interested in him!'

Ector derped over Sharon's statement and soon recalled that blast that sent him flying back then, which as tempting and teaching from pain as it is, wasn't a good idea at this point. 'Well he's alright I'll tell you that, and quite the bossy assistant if I might add...'

'Bossy?!' exclaimed Sharon as a yellow bolt of energy shot towards Ector's face. The energy dispersed as the force shot the black knight towards the empty space between the two bookshelves behind. Crashing into the wall, a damping thud echoed across the whole room, startling the bookshelves from the other side of the impact. The rumbling was strong enough to shake a shelf enough to topple over and begin a domino effect towards Ector. 'Oh nononononononononono...arggghhhh!'

As the bookshelf came falling onto the black knight, with books to topple over and add more pain to severe pain, his body laid motionless underneath the rubble of tomes. Bairon and Sharon rushed over to hopefully manage to dig Ector out of the mess that was entirely incidental or filled with pure precise planning and timing. As the two giants stood from both sides of the bookshelf to lift it off, Bairon exclaimed, 'Really sis? You just had to shoot him while we're here of all places?!'

'You of all people should know better than to talk about him that way!' Sharon shot back, with clear hostility and redder cheeks as they raised the wooden shelf off the body and laid it standing still, 'Especially you Ector!'

The only response from the downed knight was the continuous moaning of the pain that plagued all over his front body, it wasn't until that Bairon left the library to request the already busy Elaine on treating the fallen Ector. Sharon remained behind seated on a chair that overlooked Ector's pain filled body. Surprisingly, Ector was able to speak without too much pain interfering, 'You...ow...really have a thing for Hermit don't you?'

Sharon shrugged in rage over Ector's comments, and thought up an excellent rebuttal in return, 'Coming from the guy who supposedly likes a certain someone who came to rescue us yesterday, I wonder what would she think if she finds out...'

As though the pain from the shelf hadn't happened, Ector immediately sprang up to propel back a counter, 'Really Sharon? I ask about you and Hermit and you ask back about me and Julia?! Well I'll just say this, I DO NOT HAVE A THING FOR HER!'

'The more you deny it the more it feels real.'

'Coming from the girl who goes nuts over mentioning Hermit, it's hard to believe someone like you doesn't have a thing for him.'

Sharon raised her right palm to charge up for another shot, as Ector rushed forward to grab her hand to disrupt her channeling as she exclaimed, 'Let go you jerk!'

'I can't, especially with you shooting here and there without any explanation but Hermit. Just tell me, what happened between you two?'

As Ector could feel the energy charging slowly dispersing, he backed away from the sage in case of an unexpected attack. Sharon looked down in embarrassment as Ector pretended to look away with his eyes still having sight of the sage. A minute of silence later and the female sage soon began her explanation,

'I was always alone...all alone in the temple, scouring book after book to read in that quiet place. Brother was always off at meetings between us and the humans, so he never had much time to spend with me...Most of the time, I just sit around reading, and reading, and reading...All the time it was just reading...That was until the day he came...'

Ector listened intently over Sharon's confession, predicting this to be a somewhat predictable 'girl meets boy' kind of story again.

'On the first day that he'd set foot into the temple, he yelled over the size of the place, and of course I had to deliver swift justice for anyone who'd dare to defile the library, and he'd brushed it off as just another piece of pain in the way. I'd just shot him and the first thing he says is that it's just another pain he feels, that was...I could feel that he wasn't the typical sword wielding knight that floods the majority of the armies...'

'Ever since then, he always drops by to hang around or ask me for some advice or two. I didn't know that he was actually studying here until Master Barron entrusted him the Staff of the Sages that I found out. All those days with him, he made the place more lively than it ever was, it was just the two of us. And till this day, I never got the chance to...'

As footsteps soon echoed across the library's floors, the duo turned to see the arrival of Bairon, and a green haired elf with several hair tails behind in a pure white robe walking towards them. The Yggdrasil Maiden Elaine, an elven priestess that was normally protected by the noble unicorns of her forest, she held the ever persistent non-violent personality when it comes to dealing with conflicts. But recent circumstances had forced her to dispatch her team to aid the massive number of recent casualties that had risen over the course of the war against the invaders. Since joining up with Lamorak's group, she has made it her sworn duty to support this new unofficial unit for as long as it takes to drive the invaders back.

'Honestly Sharon,' said Elaine upon approaching the seated female sage and placing both her arms by her hips, 'Must you always resort to shooting someone, even your own leader?'

'It's actually okay Elaine,' explained Ector, as he raised his right palm to show that he was fine, 'Some people have certain ways of expressing themselves, even in the face of their leaders.' Ector turned to Sharon who was looking up and gave her a slight nod that translated to 'Not a word of this will be leaving this throat.'

'Well since you're clearly not as injured as it would seem,' replied an irritated Elaine, as she turned back to head out, 'I have other patients to deal with.'

As the green haired elf left the premises, Bairon turned to face the sitting Ector and extended a hand out to help lift up Ector, 'Guess that didn't escalate any further eh?'

'Not quite,' said Ector, 'Rather more of a sharing session than another round of energy ball baseball.'

'Sharing?!' exclaimed Sharon, who grabbed the closest book within her reach and threw it towards Ector who took the hit as the book bounced off his headwear, 'You didn't say half a thing about you and Julia!'

'Well we were both in the same class! There's your thing!' shot back Ector, as Bairon decided to quell this argument before more shelves are toppled and more cleaning up would follow up.

'Alright both of you, no more arguing. That's not why we called you up here for Ector, and for crying out loud please stop bringing him up.' said Bairon in a serious gaze before the two youths.

'Him? You mean Herm...' stated Ector as Bairon raced right next to him to prevent Hermit from being mentioned.

'Seriously man, no more mentioning Hermit, unless you wanna get me into more work than I should be getting, shush it!' whispered Bairon into Ector's ears.

As Bairon backed away to stand right next to Sharon, Ector now recalled the real reason for his calling here. 'Alright fine, no more that. But you still haven't explained why'd you guys asked me to come all the way up here for!'

'We're getting to that,' replied Bairon, as he placed his personal tome onto the table before him, 'But I need to know, what do you need?'

'Well first of all, some more backup if you guys got it. Which reminds me where are the rest of the giants, shouldn't they be with you two?' asked Ector, as he realized the fact that the absence of giants in the paladins was quite the rare case.

'They're part of what we're going to bring up,' said Sharon, as she made her way to stand by her brother for the coming presentation, 'Pay attention leader, as you seem to not excel at back in the Academy.'

Ector could only cringe over the fact that Hermit had mentioned his own personal blunder over the course of his years at the Academy, but decided to brush it off at the moment as the thought of taking another energy blast into the face and potentially getting trumped over by another shelf wasn't a good idea for now.

'The answer to the lack of giants with us is quite simple, as they're off looking for this guy.' stated Bairon as he opened his tome and blue sprays of energy spired into a holographic figure of a long haired knight with an eyepatch to his right. By the knight's side, a full armored near robotic high dog stood by his leg, with clear sense of loyalty towards the knight being emitted by the beast's expression.

'This is the Knight that goes by the name of Galahad,' explained Bairon, as Ector looked up towards the still holographic projection of someone he'd almost never heard of, 'He's the kind of guy you should be looking to give you guys a hand against the invaders.'

'That's a he?' asked Ector, whose realization about a long haired knight was a dude had just blown his mind out of the world, 'He really needs a haircut...'

'And you need to keep your thoughts to yourself sometimes!' said Sharon, shrugging in hostility towards the black knight who'd just promised to never speak of their conversation again, 'Anyway, about the rest of our kind. They're already looking for him wherever he is. Dozer and Borgal are said to be accompanying him on his quest, whatever that means.'

'So you guys are already looking for him eh?' replied Ector, 'Guess my work is done.'

'Not exactly Ector,' argued Bairon, 'Galahad is always on his 'quest', something till this day we have yet to uncover what it is. In any case, even if we were to find him, getting him to help us against the invaders would require some fine negotiating, that is where you come in.'

'So I'm just doing communication work?!' asked Ector upon realizing that there would almost be no action on this mission.

'Well that's half the job description.' answered Sharon, 'We still need you to persuade our fellow giants to join up with us, along with a few others. They're all scattered in pursuit of Galahad, so rallying them to help us out would more than boost your standing forces, not to mention delivering several surprises that the invaders won't see coming. Did I forgot to mention taking down any invader that happens to get in our way?'

'Well since you put it that way,' said Ector, filled with excitement to go ahead with what had just been proposed to him, 'I'd say let's get to it. When do we leave?'

'When I've made contact with our informant, we'll head out immediately.' stated Bairon, as he shut his tome and placed it between his arm and body, 'Just know getting Galahad is key, he's a knight of many traits, so losing him isn't an option on this mission Ector.'

'Gotcha Bairon,' answered Ector with a nod, 'Hopefully medical stuff is up his alley too, seeing as how Elaine alone might not be enough to keep us standing.'

Just as Ector turned to leave for downstairs, he stood and turned back to deliver something he'd almost forgot, 'Oh and Sharon, Hermit asked me to say hi.'

Unsurprisingly, Ector could only scream in great agonizing pain as a massive energy shot sent him tumbling out of the entrance and crashing into the wall ahead, with the following words echoing from the top towards the bottom of the bar throughout the whole ordeal,

'OH GOD PANICKINGRRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!'

END OF INTERLUDE:TRACKING THE TRIALS

INTERLUDE: WEAPONS OF WONDERS

As it would seem Ector was heading towards his first destination, he'd suddenly turned back towards the bar as a thought had just occurred to him. Primgal gave a welcoming bark as he got back onto his usual seat, with his recently filled mug still full of his usual dosage of water.

'Alright here's your potato, just don't get sick of it though.'

Govannon brought about a bowl of light yellowed mashed potato coated with brown chicken gravy with a spoon towards Hermit, who cringed at the sight of the dish deep in thought over his next course of action. Ector stared at the seemingly decent dish and broke the question, 'You complain about Govannon's cooking and yet you're still eating it?'

'Alright Mr what are you still doing here,' replied Hermit as he passed the bowl over to Ector, 'Since you're still slacking off as usual, why don't you give this a shot and feel it yourself!'

Ector looked into the bowl, with the potato dish that laid before him. He picked up the spoon and begins fusing the two components together with continuous flicking around here and there, eventually mashing everything into a drinkable brown soup. Govannon was cleaning up a mug when he'd noticed that Ector was now on the brink of eating in front of him for once.

'So you're gonna get started?' asked Govannon as he dragged his seat towards the bar with the mug he was working on still being brushed by his rag. 'And Hermit you coward!'

'What coward?!' Hermit shot back, priming a small shot by his staff, 'Since Ector here was clearly as free as air, guess he wanted a snack first before he's motivated enough to do his stuff.'

'Still,' said Govannon, as he leaned close to Hermit to whisper his following thoughts, 'I've never actually seen his face before...most of the time when an order for a meal comes he justs picks it off and eats somewhere else...'

'Yeah he's been like that since the start of his Academy days...Everyone was off calling him names and insults for hiding in his mask...To add insult to injury, he occasionally gets himself beaten to crap during spars and is quite the magnet for trouble...Even so, it's surprising that the Academy never made the decision to expel him for such actions...from what I do know, the mask is according to him, a seal for something within him...Till this day though, I know nothing about what lies behind that mask of his...'

At opposite ends of the bar's table, Ector was preparing himself for the coming drinking of the dish that Hermit had ordered and passed towards him to either suffer it's horrible effects or get a free meal. As the two who were in conversation moments earlier, they turned to see how would the black knight dine on the dish before him. Ector grabbed both sides of the bowl and raised it towards his mouth, as he flicked the mask's bottom component open and poured the mushy dish in. Hermit and Govannon could hardly believe it, even Ector wanted his own mouth to be kept from being seen in public.

The dish was slightly warm as the salty taste of brown chicken gravy mixed with the plain near tasteless soft potato's mush was an excellent mix between the two. As the last of the mush was finally swallowed in, Ector immediately brushed off any specks of sauce on his mouth and sealed the bottom back. He placed the former bowl of mashed potatoes onto the table and turned to see the duo at the other end of the bar staring in curiosity.

'Seriously guys, and you call me slacking off?' asked Ector in annoyance over their true intentions that he'd just thought up, 'And don't you have better things to do than talk about my mask?!'

Hermit and Govannon cringed at the fact that their near silent whispers could even reach the ears of the black knight before them, as proven by Ector's near razor sharp sense of hearing, something that he had unknowingly developed into a personal trait over many years of solitude and near zero social interaction with others.

The piped sized gnome decided to go back on the offensive regarding the matter, 'Well if you actually show your face around here we won't be talking about it would we?!'

'I do show my face around here,' replied Ector while pushing the empty bowl away from what was going to happen, 'You've been seeing it for weeks now and you're still complaining?!'

Govannon gave himself a facepalm over what the black knight's response of a pun, as Hermit gave a brief chuckle and took over from where Govannon left off, 'Well at least you've still got some humor left in you after all that,' said Hermit, 'There I was thinking that you couldn't head out because you're still depressed about everyone else.'

A brief silence followed before Ector broke it to give out his order before his plan could get underway, 'Speaking of which Hermit, I need you to drop by the infirmary for a bit.'

'What for man?' asked Hermit as he got up from his seat, all set for his inevitable departure from the bar.

'I need you to asses everyone's current condition, and report back when you're done.' explained Ector, without the slightest twitch or change in posture.

Hermit frowned at his buddy's little request, and shot back, 'Why can't you do it yourself? I have other matters to tend to you know.'

'Coming from the guy who wanted me to go off talking to other folks to get reinforcements, isn't it transparently clear that I'm doing it right now?!' exclaimed Ector, as he budged slightly forward from his seat.

'Ughh...' muttered Hermit, knowing that dragging this argument on any longer would get nothing done, 'Fine...Just make sure you actually do your stuff while I'm gone instead of doing what what you do best.'

'Is it working?'

'We all know you're the lord of slacking off around here Ector!'

As Hermit departed from his seat towards the stairwell by the tables where the Jewel Knights had gathered, Ector now turned his attention to the bartender who had just snatched the bowl away for cleaning. Primgal looked up at Ector and barked to get his attention to help get his breakfast. The black knight reached out to the right corner of the bar where a blue plastic bowl and box of dog food sat by one another. He took the bowl and placed it right in the front of the starving puppy, as he poured the box of delicious puppy goodness into the bowl for Primgal to start munching on.

With Primgal munching happily on his snack, Ector now returned his focus to Govannon as he initiated the conversation, 'Say Govannon, you heard the little conversation between me and Hermit earlier. You've got something that could give us a hand?'

Govannon turned away from the brushing of the bowl and leaped himself back onto his seat behind the bar. But before he could start his proposition, something that had been bothering him was the main priority at the moment, 'Since you've done right by me in paying up more than you should for my services, I guess I'll do right by you in return.' said Govannon, as he pointed towards the TV with the massive screen above the bar, 'But you still owe the Tavern a FREAKING TV!'

'Still can't let it go Govannon?' asked Ector, as he looked up at the television set that was shot right in its screen, all the result of a particular individual flaunted with arrogance that had prompted a swift delivery of bullet justice, 'Well in case we don't get close to putting that scum down to hell, it's still good enough if you think about it.'

'Don't you tell me to let it go!' exclaimed Govannon, slamming the table with his small palms that could barely make a sound echo across the Tavern, 'That's a disastrously annoying future song title in those words...But the point is, get a TV back into the place already! Which reminds me, why did you decide to consult me first instead of the others?'

'Well for some strange reason,' replied Ector, as he looked around behind to see if anyone's attention was turned towards here, 'I get the feeling that just talking to either one of the three, all of them will bring up...'

'Bring up what?' asked Govannon, raising an eyebrow over the discontinued statement.

'They'll bring up the assumption that I have a...thing...for Julia...' replied Ector, with occasional pausing between several words, 'The same goes for Hermit...First my mask and then he'll bring her up...'

'Oh really? Because you two look like you're both made for each other, other than being in the same class being the only connection between you two...'

'For crying out loud, you too Govannon?!' exclaimed Ector, with the sheer urge to grab and choke his frustration into the piped sized weapon smith turned bartender, 'You're the last person I expect to talk about this! Silver has his wild assumptions, Sharon would probably shoot back in response to me bring up Hermit, and the Jewel Knights there have their own ways of getting two together for a little 'magical' moment...'

'You seem to have thought this through a lot have you?' asked Govannon in response, as he continued to brush off the dirt from the mug that he'd nicked on his way to his seat, 'Seems like you really have a thing for her.'

A cringe imploded all over Ector's face, which thanks to his mask had prevented the public from seeing it. But his flinch was good enough to tell that he was stunned by the statement as he responded, 'I most certainly DO NOT have a thing for her man! Why do I get this strange feeling that I'll be saying the same thing another three times later today?'

Seeing as the investigation had gone extremely well, Govannon decided to pull away from this topic to focus on what was more important, 'Alright lover boy guess that's enough for today,' said Govannon as Ector turned to face the exceedingly calm gnome, 'You've got more crucial things on your plate than this at the moment, so let's get to it already.'

Ector gave a long sigh of relief, the torment was over and that things were starting to get underway. 'So what you've got for us Govannon?' asked Ector.

'If you're thinking mass hardware of destruction, you're way over your head man.' replied Govannon, as he paused his cleaning to reach for a parchment from his back pocket, 'We don't exactly have those super deadly weapons those Dimensional Cops seem to enjoy wiping the floor with, but I do have something similar to that.'

'Believe me buddy,' said Ector, as he took the parchment to read through its contents, 'The last thing we need is something that we can use to obliterate the invaders to oblivion and it ends up in their hands instead.'

Govannon scowled at the mention of such a plan, 'Pffttttt, what do you think we are? Desperate dogs who have given up the fight and go all 'Final Weapon' against them? Please...'

'So you were saying?'

'Yeah about that. I've recently made contact with some of my team from the Forge, who have apparently sent Margal here to give me a message,' explained Govannon as he turned to reveal a red armored high dog with his head on his paws fast asleep, 'Point is your little heroics have managed to give them a reason to get back our home from those cyber cheating machines.'

'That's great, so what's next?' asked Ector as he noticed Margal's speared edge on the end of his tail.

'They're looking to join up with us, but they won't exactly budge unless they're meeting the top brass in charge of that little assault. Which in this case, you're coming along for the ride.'

'Hmm...Just what are your team capable of?'

'Oh questioning my team's abilities are you?' asked Govannon in excitement to explain the many wondrous things that go on at the Forge, 'Guess somebody wasn't paying much attention during the trip to the Forge eh?'

Ector was dumbfounded as he'd realize that really boring trip to the Forge was actually the place where the current bartender of The Tavern used to work at! How did I miss that?! Ector thought to himself, with the only clear answer to follow, Oh wait I missed it.

'Well anyway, we've got the best weapon making experts in this entire crew. Give us an hour and you've got five battalions worth of swords and spears all ready for some slashing and poking action. If that weren't enough, we'll turn every single sword swinging beginner into a seasoned potentially murderous master swordsman in a matter of days!'

'You guys don't need a workshop or something like that?' asked Ector, thinking how in the world could such productivity even be possible. Normal smiths take about weeks to prepare enough ordnance for that many warriors, so Govannon was either overselling his team or that he was actually bragging about their true inhuman abilities.

'We're a mobile kind of smiths,' replied Govannon, 'Even in the field we get orders to fix up broken equipment for overzealous or panicky troopers. Point is, they'll need to meet the boss behind all this before they'll officially join up. So you're up for it?'

Ector drew his sword from his back holster, and placed it onto the bar just as he did days earlier for Govannon to inspect the weapon's condition. Govannon leaped onto the table to survey the metallic weapon with a unique light blue upper blade, as the remainder of the blade was silver plated with a shape that slightly resembled a lightning bolt.

'This is as usual, still a great piece buddy,' concluded Govannon, who was always focused when it comes to working on weapons, 'It's amazing that it's hasn't suffered any minor damage after so long...Guess she'd picked the right person to entrust this to...'

'Yeah...' said Ector with his head looking down in thought, 'Sensei...'

As he looked up to grab the blade back, his grip tightened on the metallic hilt, with several emotions conflicting for superiority inside. By the end of it, only the emotion of determination remained victorious within Ector. 'I promise you that this won't end without us going down fighting...' muttered Ector under his breath, as he stared at his sword before sheathing it back into his holster.

'Hey you're good?' asked Govannon, seeing that the black knight was in an emotional state despite his expression being covered by his mask.

'I'm fine.' replied Ector, as he turned to face the bartender to finish up on the conversation, 'You've got anyone on your team with some medical abilities?'

'Hmmm...' said Govannon, as he brushed his chin in thought of the question before him, 'I doubt it, though I could be wrong about them. Weeks of hiding must've taught them something medical related but we'll see.'

'Gotcha.' returned Ector, as he recalled something that he'd almost forgot to tell Govannon, 'And great potato by the way, could you prepare another serving for Hermit? Put both on my tab while you're at it.'

Govannon could only shake his head over Ector's request, he'd always been one to look out for everyone, something that most people wouldn't ever notice. Just like that, Ector set off from the bar towards the next destination.

END OF INTERLUDE: WEAPON OF WONDERS

NEXT: CHAPTER 2: ALL FOUR ONE, ONE FOUR ALL


	4. Chapter 2: All Four One, One Four All

CARDFIGHT! VANGUARD: COMPANY OF TERRAN

CHAPTER #2: ALL FOUR ONE, ONE FOUR ALL

THE TAVERN, INFARMARY AREA…

0800 HRS LOCAL TIME….

Yggdrasil Maiden Elaine had been trotting around the second floor for the past few days, carrying various scarce medical supplies that could be scavenged from the Tavern's former medical room. Her sacred white robe dress had remained clear white despite the near endless hours of looking after the fallen members of this band of paladins. Most could easily recognize the violence hating elven priestess with the quadruple of green ponytails that flickered by her back, with a dark pink jewel attached onto her forehead.

So far, her normally potent healing powers were only capable of removing fragments of the cursed power of 'Lock', enough to keep her patients from suffering any longer, but they still remained unconsciousness in a deep coma. How long would it be before they would recover was a question with no answer at the moment.

As she made her way to the makeshift triage centre that currently housed 4 fallen members with their fellow siblings and associates, ensuring that their well beings were kept in check was also part of her daily priorities. Elaine turned the doorknob and pushed open the wooden door to find something unexpected before her.

Lamorak's younger sister Liz, Randolf's fellow buddy Gordon, Akane's associate Seiran and Gornement's apprentice Ideale had fell asleep by their bedsides, something that they'd haven't exactly done for the past few days. Normally they'd be standing by their comrade's sides in hopes of greeting them upon their awakening. What was more intriguing was the fact that there were several plates, utensils and cups that laid within a container by the table near the entrance, with some specks of bread crumbs and gravy remains on their surfaces.

'Morning Elaine.'

The green haired Priestess turned towards the voice to see the masked black knight approaching her, someone who'd she'd concluded was behind what had just occurred earlier in her absence. 'Well that's surprising; I'd never thought you'd ever get up earlier than me Ector.'

Ector gave a nod as he'd came up close with Elaine, overlooking her due to the difference in height between the two. Ector's armor was silver plated, but most just refer to it as black due to the tattered black cape that shrouded behind. What differentiated Ector from the Shadow Paladin's leader Blaster Dark was the inclusion of his personal mask with a tri edged vizer that symbolized his spirit to fight in metallic terms. Most of the time his sword would be sheathed by the holster in his back, which was occasionally used unconventionally in combat.

'Well guess you should change your thoughts a bit Elaine,' replied Ector, who let out a smile that could never be seen unless the mask comes off as he turned to see his fellow teammates fast asleep in the room, 'At least their needs for today are taken care off for now, so take a break for a bit k?'

'Always looking out for others are you now?' asked Elaine, 'Guess she'd made the right decision on taking you on as an apprentice.'

The mention of 'her' would typically drive the black knight into a brief depression, but surprisingly this time his expression had barely flinched, due to recent developments that had fueled his will to push forward in this war. 'Yeah…But anyway, don't push yourself too hard Elaine, some help is coming in soon.' answered Ector, as he made his way towards the stairs.

'Speak for yourself,' shot back Elaine, as she realized that Ector was leaving the cleaning up of the dishes to her, 'And aren't you going to bring this down?'

'You could bring it down yourself can't you?' asked Ector back, knowing that something was gonna come flying to headshot him soon enough.

Unsurprisingly, Elaine flung a plate towards Ector's head as he caught the makeshift Frisbee and dashed towards the room, 'Alright alright! I'll bring it down…'

As Ector marched down the staircase with the container of dirty dishes, Elaine could only shake her head in annoyance over the leader's somewhat childish attitude. Something that haven't surfaced since the days before that 'incident', and it was heartening to see it show itself again after a long time of personal blame.

"Aw craaappp…!' echoed Ector followed by several thuds and shattering dishes that echoed across the lower floors.

Elaine gave herself a facepalm, with a brief smile that meant Ector was now the same old caring ally that watched over everyone even without them knowing it.

THE TAVERN…

0820 HRS LOCAL TIME…

'Really now, first you blast the TV in the face with our public enemy number one on it and now you go all breaking this many dishes?!'

Hermit was furious over the little fiasco that Ector had just created during his brief descent from the upper floors, and over the course of the last half an hour he'd been attempting to reattach the fragments of broken plates back together, like a really expensive puzzle set. The blonde white armored youth with a red cape by his back was typically known as Mystical Hermit, or Hermit for short as nobody knows his true name. Unlike most of his friends from the Academy, he created his own unique style of fighting thanks to the little journey that involved studying under the giants that roamed the Sanctuary.

As Hermit channeled a sharp orange surge of energy onto the cracks that connected this one plate, the object itself began to start fusing back with its tattered half as the beam moved away from that particular crack. Soon enough, the plate was back in its circular form, with minor scratches that pointed out where the cracks had been before.

'You should know better that this isn't exactly something that we've got time for man,' exclaimed Hermit, as repairing plates with his powers wasn't exactly part of the schedule for today, 'Besides, please tell me that you've got them to give us a hand on what's to come.'

Seated next to Hermit by the bar, Ector gave a nod while brushing the sleeping Primgal's fur. 'We've got their propositions, and today's the day we get them done,' answered Ector, who had the tendency to use 'we' instead of 'I' occasionally, 'and apparently everyone can't seem to stop shipping me and Julia can they?!'

'They did?' asked Hermit in surprise, who had wanted to slander his buddy with his assumed secret crush since the academy days, 'Well, I can't believe I missed out on all that…'

'But anyway, here's what we got.' Said Ector, as he brought out a large parchment and laid it onto the bar. From its contents, scribbled names of Ector's clients laid all over the map of the planet Cray, 'Where we strike first is up to me, but just note I'm gonna be gone for quite awhile Hermit.'

CHAPTER ARCS (THEME SONG PEOPLE!  watch?v=Clpth_6a41I)

**TRACKING THE TRIALS**

'_Bairon mentioned something about looking for this Knight of Tribulations Galahad, supposed ably it's said that several of the Sanctuary's giants are said to be close associates to this guy. And that being able to convince him to join us in the fight will bring about the sages into our force, not to mention some extra bonuses that could potentially follow up with his recruitment.'_

**JEWEL KNIGHTS ENCOUNTER**

'_Apparently most of the Jewel Knights had managed to survive past Ashley's reversal and are now currently hiding out in the Zoo nation. How and why did they get there is something that I'm not gonna ponder, but the point is if we're going to get the Jewel Knights to help us, personally escorting them back is the only way we're ever gonna get them to back us up. Oh and quit with the shipping people!'_

**WEAPON OF WONDERS**

'_Govannon's associates had recently contacted him about finally coming out of hiding, and are more than ready to drop the hammers down in forging new gear for us and potential new recruits. But they'll only budge if they're talking to the person in charge of their future team, which in this case is me unsurprisingly. Hopefully, they've got something to help us against the blasted 'Lock'._

**THE SILVER SOLUTION**

'_I'm actually surprised that Silver had actually decided to do his job for once. He wants me to check out this thing up above called 'The Realm of the Gods, which is supposed ably a place where a band of knights infused with the Sanctuary's powers reside, something those cursed invaders would almost never expect to go against. Oh and Silver apparently wants to follow up with a little trip after all this…Why did I agree to it again?'_

TO BE CONTINUED, WITH **TRACKING THE TRIALS**…


End file.
